CIAO DATE: 04/05

Sanctions Sans Commitment: An Assessment of UN Arms Embargoes

Abstract

An impeccable logic makes arms embargoes a potentially powerful instrument in the array of United Nations (UN) peace- and security-building mechanisms. By denying aggressors and human rights abusers the implements of war and repression, arms embargoes contribute directly to preventing and reducing the level of armed conflict. There could hardly be a more appropriate tool for international peacemaking. Moreover, in constricting only selected weapons and military-related goods and services, and in denying these to ruling elites, their armies, and other violent combatants, arms embargoes constitute the quintessential example of a smart sanction. Not only do arms embargoes avoid doing harm to vulnerable and innocent civilian populations; the better the embargoes' enforcement, the more innocent lives are likely to be saved.

This powerful logic may explain why arms embargoes are the most frequently employed form of economic sanction. Since 1990, the UN Security Council has imposed mandatory arms embargoes in twelve of its fourteen sanctions cases. See the table "Selected Cases of Arms Embargoes, 1990-2001" for a complete listing of Security Council arms embargoes in the past decade. Only in the cases of Cambodia and Sudan did the Security Council choose not to apply a restriction on arms imports. In most cases arms embargoes were part of a broader package of sanctions measures. In some cases (Angola, Rwanda since 1995, and Sierra Leone since 1998) arms embargoes have been targeted against rebel movements fighting against an established government. In all other cases arms embargoes were applied against governments deemed to be violating human rights and posing a threat to international peace. Through September 2001 UN arms embargoes remained in place against seven states.

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