Targeted Sanctions

Targeted sanctions are increasingly used by the UN Security Council, regional organizations and individual countries to address major challenges to international peace and security and to promote foreign policy objectives. Since the end of the Cold War, the UN has used them for a variety of objectives, such as resolving armed conflicts, countering terrorism, reinforcing nuclear non-proliferation, and signaling opposition to non-constitutional changes of government worldwide.

The Targeted Sanctions Initiative at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, is a locus for scholarly and policy research on targeted sanctions. Headed by Prof. Thomas Biersteker, the initiative involves the maintenance of qualitative and quantitative databases on UN targeted sanctions, the software SanctionsApp and a regular seminar series held in Geneva.

Further Information

The project collaborates with the Special Program on the International Targeted Sanctions (SPITS) at Uppsala University, and the Sanctions & Security Research Program at University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

For more information, please contact Thomas.Biersteker@graduateinstitute.ch

LATEST PUBLICATIONs

Enhancing Due Process in UN Security Council Targeted Sanctions Regimes: Ongoing Challenges, New Approaches

This report summarizes the main discussion points raised during a workshop in April 2022 on exploring ways to strengthen fair process in UN sanctions regimes targeting individuals. The primary purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum for assessing existing deficiencies, to identify ways in which existing arrangements could be improved to protect fundamental due process rights and to explore innovative, non-judicial review mechanisms that might help protect against future legal challenges – and thereby safeguard the legitimacy and effectiveness of UN sanctions regimes. The report has been prepared by Thomas Biersteker (Geneva Graduate Institute) and Larissa van den Herik (Leiden University) with the three co-organizers of the workshop: Switzerland, Ireland, and Norway.

Full report here

Sanctions on Russia: Impacts and economic costs on the United States

A report published by the Programme for the Study of International Governance and the Geneva International Sanctions Network suggests that economic costs to the US of its sanctions on Russia are minimal and should not represent a major consideration in the US government’s decision-making as to whether to maintain or lift the measures.

This report follows the publication of The New Deterrent? International Sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine Crisis. Dr. Erica Moret, Senior Researcher at PSIG, and Coordinator of the Geneva International Sanctions Network, was the lead author of both reports.

Full report here