Sanctions in Latin America

Within the UN, sanctions decisions are taken by the Security Council where its five permanent members (the US, China, France, Russia, and the UK) each have a right of veto. A decision also requires a majority vote of all of the Council’s 15 members. Once agreed by the Security Council, applying the sanctions becomes mandatory for all UN member states. Typically, UN sanctions include asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes. Implementation is monitored by specially set-up sanctions committees. However, the UN lacks an independent enforcement capacity of its own and must rely on the cooperation of member states or other bodies. For example, the UN has worked with Interpol to apply sanctions to members of Islamic State (IS). There is a general perception that the enforcement of UN sanctions is relatively weak because of limited resources and the low priority sometimes assigned to the task by many countries.

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