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Since the late 1990s, three international initiatives have been undertaken to develop and hone political approaches to the targeting of sanctions, with the goal of increasing their effectiveness.
The first of these, the Interlaken Process, was initiated by the Swiss Government in 1998 and focused on targeted financial sanctions. Consultations during the Process identified the role of humanitarian exemptions in designing targeted financial sanctions and mentioned briefly the role of humanitarian impact monitoring. The report of the contributions to the sanctions debate resulting from the Process did, however, suggest draft text for incorporating provisions relating to monitoring of potential humanitarian consequences in UN Security Council resolutions.7 This “model” text for Security Council resolutions is described in more detail in section 6.2.
The second initiative, the Bonn-Berlin Process, organized by the Foreign Office of Germany in 2000, focused on arms embargoes and travel sanctions. The consultations under this process did not directly address how to assess the potential humanitarian implications of the measures under discussion.8
The third initiative in this triad, the Stockholm Process on the Implementation of Targeted UN Sanctions, was coordinated by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and took place during 2002. The final report of this initiative was presented to the UN Security Council in February 2003. Among its recommendations was the need for an “established methodology” for carrying out regular humanitarian and socioeconomic impact assessments.9
Taken together, these three initiatives guide much of the UN’s political work to create and implement targeted sanctions. For the UN Security Council, sanctions constitute one of the tools available to the Council—of a range of options between diplomacy and military force— to restore peace and security. It is important, therefore, that these measures be well designed and implemented properly, and that any unintended harm they may cause be minimized and mitigated.
Complementing the reference documents produced under the three international processes on more effective and targeted sanctions, this handbook can assist in minimizing potential humanitarian impacts of sanctions implemented according to the guidelines and recommendations produced during those processes.
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