The UN's Smart Sanctions Regime and Its Human Rights Implications

The status and roles of individuals and international institutions, though in a limited sense, have been strengthened and increased in international community. Particularly international institutions function as a means to secure the fundamental rights of individuals against arbitrary state conduct. However, with the increased impact by such institutions on state, the basic rights of individuals can be restrained by international institutions, themselves. This issue is what the UN, which is the most universal international institution, might be currently facing. The UN Sanctions Committee, while least known due to its closed nature, may be most important organ as the UN's mechanism of international peace and security. Starting with UN Security Council Resolution 751 in 1992 concerning Somalia and Eritrea, currently 12 sanctions committees are on operation. From a technical point of view, the term sanction would encompass both the military and non-military measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. However sanction imposed by the UN generally refers to economic restriction against states or against individuals and non-state entities. The comprehensive sanction against Iraq in 1990 has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis with collateral damages to Iraqi civilians. With the lessons learned from this case, the UN has approached to so-called smart sanction or more commonly known as targeted sanctions. It is quite ironic that smart sanctions were initiated to cure the humanitarian crisis, yet they also face the criticisms of human rights violations. In response to such criticism, UN Security Council has passed a series of resolutions between 2002 and 2011 to fill the gap of procedural deficiencies. Substantial progress as to the listing process has been made, yet there still remains concerns for the delisting procedure, at the moment. In balancing between international security and fundamental protection of human rights, the UN Security Council must remind itself of the fundamental purpose of smart sanction.