Prof. Thomas Biersteker and Global Governance Centre’s postdoctoral researcher Aurel Niederberger authored a new report entitled “UN Individual Sanctions Listing and Delisting Patterns and Their Interaction with Autonomous Measures.” The report is one of a series on sanctions and mediation published over the past several years by the UN University’s Centre for Policy Research.
Sanctions listings and delistings can alter the conditions under which negotiations take place. They can serve as warnings and incentives, stigmatize (or rehabilitate) stakeholders in negotiation processes, inhibit (or facilitate) logistics such as travel, and attempt to stabilize peace settlements. Despite the many ways in which sanctions listings and delistings can affect mediation processes, relatively little is known about the general listing and delisting patterns employed by the UN Security Council or their interactions with autonomous sanctions measures. An understanding of the listing and delisting of individuals is crucial to the strategic application of sanctions, and particularly their potential use by mediators.
As part of the Sanctions and Mediation 2.0 – Moving from Evidence to Impact project, supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, this report aims to provide UN and other mediators with a better understanding of the broader listing and delisting dynamics of the UN and interrelations with autonomous sanctions by other authorities. The report also provides a number of statistics on listing and de-listing dynamics (disaggregated by sanctions regime) and assesses the degrees to which autonomous sanctions overlap with, or complement, UN sanctions. It concludes with a set of considerations for mediators who may contemplate delistings as a tool in mediation processes.
