Global Policy Forum

By Nicole Winfield

United Nations - UN sanctions are often ignored, but when they do strike home, it's often innocents who are hurt and not the regimes they targeted, according to the first case-by-case report card on their effectiveness. The report highlights a dilemma Secretary General Kofi Annan has raised repeatedly with regard to Iraq, and comes after a decade in which the United Nations imposed more sanctions than at any other time.

''The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s,'' is expected to generate a lengthy debate when it is presented to the Security Council on Monday, when it takes up the issue of reforming sanctions. For the most part, the 274-page report backs ''smart sanctions'' that target regimes with specific measures and not broad-based trade embargoes that often hurt innocent civilians. It cites a ban on Angolan rebels' diamond exports as a good way to starve the rebels' ability to finance their military campaign - but notes that the ban was never enforced and was only imposed after the rebels had earned nearly $4 billion from gem sales.

The book examines the Angola ban and 10 other UN embargoes imposed in the last 10 years. It rates their success and offers concrete recommendations for how embargoes can work better. Among its findings: Sanctions against Iraq fared well initially because they helped disarm Baghdad, but they have outlived their usefulness and sully the UN reputation. A key reason, the study says, is that the Security Council failed early on to reward Iraqi compliance with an easing of the embargo that would have encouraged future cooperation. An arms embargo on Rwanda had no impact whatsoever because it was imposed too late to stop the 1994 genocide and was resoundingly ignored, the report said.

Overall, the Security Council would have greatly improved its one-third success rate if it had chosen to enforce sanctions rather than rely on the good will of UN member states to abide by them, the study said. ''Getting sanctions right has often been a less compelling goal than getting sanctions adopted,'' Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said in a foreword. The report urged the council to put more money into monitoring embargoes and assessing their impact, and make clear in resolutions how sanctions can be eased so targeted states have an incentive to comply. Similar suggestions have been made in academic and UN studies, but ''The Sanctions Decade'' is the first comprehensive look at UN sanctions and its recommendations come at a critical time, said David Malone, president of the International Peace Academy, the independent New York think-tank that compiled the report.

On Monday, the council is expected to appoint a working group to recommend guidelines for improving the effectiveness of sanctions while sparing civilians. Whether the recommendations are implemented is another question. The United States has been reluctant to even discuss sanction changes, primarily out of fear it would lead to criticism of its Iraq policy, Malone said. Canada, which has taken a lead in pressing for sanction changes, helped fund the study. Prior to 1990, sanctions had been imposed on only two countries, Rhodesia and South Africa.