Security Council sanctions against individuals and non-state entities

Section: RESEARCH
Published
Aug 4, 2025
Pages
187-235

Abstract

Sanctions that include non-military measures are one of the means adopted by the Security Council in order to achieve the goal of keeping international peace and security which is one of the most important goals for which the United Nations Organization was established in 1945, using the terms of reference given to them under Chapter VII of the Charter and in particular Article (41). If the traditional concept of these sanctions when the emergence of the United Nations goes out that these sanctions would be imposed on countries that violate the principles or objectives of this organization in particular prejudice international peace and security, and this concept is consistent also with the discussions made at the San Francisco Conference to establish this organization. However, the real practices and experiences carried out by the United Nations in the process to impose such sanctions comprehensively on countries resulted in many problems. Perhaps the most important problems caused by these comprehensive sanctions were affecting human rights and freedoms in countries that have been punished, and also the economic problems that face countries have big economic links with punished countries. The United Nations is required to put a n end to this economic problems in accordance with Article (50) of the Charter, along with the comprehensive sanctions do not lead always to weaken the political system that violated the international peace and security. To avoid all these problems, since the mid-nineties of the twentieth century discussion have been made to find an alternative procedure for comprehensive sanctions. A new term (smart sanctions) was emerged that targets specified individuals and entities within the country, whether they are within the political system of the state or linked to this system, but their behavior is linked directly threaten peace and security. As a result of reports of former Secretaries-General of the United Nations (particularly Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan) and General Assembly resolutions and international conferences to demonstrate the usefulness of this type of sanctions, the Security Council resorted to this type of sanctions and started actually carrying out it in many countries. The Security Council has justified the imposition of this kind of sanctions on different justifications as the case before it. It has been adopted in some cases depending on the correlation activity of individuals and non-State entities terrorist acts, in other cases, the activity has been considered associated with fomenting an internal conflict, while in other cases the activity has been considered in relation with nuclear activities endanger international peace and security. The targeted sanctions against individuals and entities include a travel ban, assets freeze and weapons embargo. This research is to demonstrate the concept of these sanctions and the evolution of its appearance, the legal basis for imposing and then mentioning the examples of these sanctions imposed by the Security Council in several countries.

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