Sharing Responsibility for UN Targeted Sanctions
International Organizations Law Review, vol. 12, pp. 427-447, 2015
20 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2015 Last revised: 2 Mar 2016
Date Written: September 15, 2015
Abstract
International organisations often lack operational capacity, but may command significant normative power over states. By contrast, states have organs with significant operational capacity. Adoption of sanctions by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter would remain a dead letter without enlisting the capacity of states to implement these measures on the ground. The UN and its member states thus both contribute to a single harmful outcome. International responsibility for this is shared in practice, as demonstrated by recent developments in domestic and regional international courts: states are held responsible by domestic or regional international courts, and are forced to disobey the Security Council in order to comply with their human rights obligations. In turn, the states put pressure on the Security Council to reform the offending regime, forcing the UN to comply with its own international obligations.
Keywords: international responsibility, sanctions, UN, international organizations, states, chapter VII, shared responsibility
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