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Doc. 8852
5 October 2000
Towards a more effective policy on sanctions
Motion for recommendation
presented by Mrs Zwerver and Mr. Duivesteijn and others
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it |
1. Sanctions against governments or states have been a popular instrument of coercive diplomacy in the 1990s. However, they have significant undesirable side-effects. They lead to much suffering on the part of the population of the targeted state and in some cases also in neighbouring states. At the same time they do not appear to be very effective in influencing authoritarian regimes. In many cases their effect is contrary to the desired aim.
2. Humanitarian assistance does not provide an effective safety net to compensate for the social and economic dislocation caused or aggravated by prolonged trade embargoes. There is a need for better targeted and more humane sanctions, that is, “smarter” sanctions which reduce the negative impact on the civilian population and maximise the pressure on the target regime and its supporters.
3. In view of the humanitarian situation of the population in countries which have experienced or are experiencing economic sanctions (Serbia, Kosovo, Iraq, Burundi, Cuba), there is a need to develop urgently proper policies on more humane, better targeted “smart” sanctions. Such sanctions should serve as an alternative to sanctions which always harm the general population rather than the perpetrators against whom the sanctions, in principle, are levelled.
4. As a general principle, for humanitarian and democratic reasons, long-term economic sanctions should be forbidden as a means to realise political goals. Besides, their conformity with standards of public international law, especially in terms of human rights and humanitarian law, may be questioned.
5. The role, transparency, and powers of the UN and EU sanctions committees should be examined and monitored.
6. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers call on member states:
- to ensure that sanctions are applied in accordance with the UN Charter and in line with established norms of human rights and humanitarian law;
- to develop sanctions policies with a view to making them more effective in achieving their goals, in particular by making them more humane and more effectively targeted and by improving the effectiveness of arms embargoes;
- to mobilise capacity and to shoulder the costs necessary to make sanctions management, enforcement and impact-monitoring more effective;
- to maintain an active, flexible and creative political dialogue and engagement with the target regime, since sanctions cannot be a substitute for other political initiatives;
- to make sanctions policy more accountable, inter alia, through establishing parliamentary control over sanctions implementation;
- to discuss in the UN or EU forum the need to continue the sanctions on all countries against which they are in force;
- to accept evaluation, on a continuous basis, of every proposed or ongoing sanctions regime as obligatory under international law.
Signed : 1
Zwerver, Netherlands, SOC
Aguiar, Portugal, EPP/CD
Bársony, Hungary, SOC
Behrendt, Germany, SOC
Bindig, Germany, SOC
Busic, Croatia, EPP/CD
Cilevics, Latvia, SOC
Davis, United Kingdom, SOC
Duivesteijn, Netherlands, SOC
Einarsson, Sweden, UEL
Err, Luxemburg, SOC
Eversdijk, Netherlands, EPP/CD,
Gül, Turkey, EDG
Gross, Switzerland, SOC
Ivanov, Estonia, SOC
Jurgens, Netherlands, SOC
Kiely, Ireland, LDR
Kurykin, Ukraine, NR
Lippelt, Germany, LDR
Markovska, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", EPP/CD
Mutman, Turkey, SOC
Severinsen, Denmark, LDR
Stanoiu, Romania, SOC
Stoisits, Austria, SOC
Telek, Turkey, EDG
Vanoost, Belgium, SOC
Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC
Wray, United Kingdom, SOC
1 SOC: Socialist Group
EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
EDG:European Democratic Group
LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group
UEL : Group of the Unified European Left
NR : Not registered in a group