How Does the UN Enforce Its Policies?

The United Nations building

The United Nations is a gathering of representatives from 192 member states. The goal of the U.N. is to foster international relations among its members and promote human rights, better living standards and social progress. The organization faces challenges when the matter of policy enforcement arises.

Sovereignty

The single largest hurdle to enforcement of U.N. policies is that of a state's sovereignty. The U.N. does not have the right, power or desire to forcefully impose its policies on sovereign nations. It does not have a dedicated military force but rather relies on its members to volunteer resources. As military action is the choice of last resort, the U.N. has other options at its disposal. When diplomacy fails, mandatory sanctions come into play.

Embargoes

Embargoes are restrictions on exports to specific countries. A trade embargo is a prohibition of exports of all types. Strategic embargoes refer only to those goods that have value to the target country's military capability. For instance, the U.N. imposed a trade embargo on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Such sanctions raise concerns about the financial impact to the economically vulnerable citizens of the subject nation. This concern created a need for a more precise tool.

Targeted Sanctions

Targeted sanctions are embargoes or measures aimed at specific entities. By narrowing the scope of the sanction, the U.N. hopes that the economically vulnerable will be spared any negative effects. The target can be political individuals or groups or even, in the case of some African countries, specific trades or areas of commerce such as diamonds--also called "conflict diamonds" because profits from their sale fund military activity.

Arms Embargoes

Arms sanctions are similar to trade embargoes but are concerned specifically with trade in weaponry. Arms embargoes allow the U.N. to not only voice disapproval of the subject nation's actions but hopefully limit its ability to act violently toward other nations. Arms embargoes are of limited use, because nations can circumvent legitimate means of acquiring arms. The effectiveness of these embargoes are uncertain; the U.N. established arms embargoes against South Africa hoping to curtail its policies of apartheid, yet that nation managed a significant increase in military resources during the embargo.

Travel Bans and Asset Freezes

Two more tools the U.N. possesses involve limiting a target's ability to travel and access his financial resources. Such bans were levied against Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and other entities in 1999 in response to their terrorist activities.

Limitations

Short of military action, the U.N. is limited in what its members can accomplish with sanctions. The organization first tries to enforce its policies through diplomacy.

References

• United Nations: Security Council
• Beyond Intractibility: Arms Embargoes