United Nations targeted sanctions, human rights and the Office of the Ombudsperson

Although the number of individuals and entities on the Taliban and Al-Qaida sanctions list was initially very small, in the wake of 9/11, hundreds of names were added. The procedure by which individuals and entities were added to the lists has given rise to serious concerns over due process and human rights. The listing process entailed action by UN Member States to enforce the asset freezing and travel bans and these actions prompted challenges in the courts of both the EU and the UK by individuals and entities whose assets had been frozen. In 2008, in the joined cases of Kadi and Al Barakaat, the ECJ (now CJEU) found that the system under EU law by which listed persons came to have their assets frozen was seriously flawed. There can be little doubt that the creation of the Office of the Ombudsperson in 2009 was a response to the ECJ’s decision in Kadi I. The Office of the Ombudsperson was created by SC Resolution 1904 (2009) and its mandate was extended by SC Resolution 1989 (2011). This chapter examines the background to the creation of the Office of the Ombudsperson, the current delisting process contained in SC Resolution 2161 (2014), the impact of the Office of the Ombudsperson (including the criticisms of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism) and the effect of the new listing and delisting process on CJEU in Kadi II. The extension of the Al-Qaida sanctions regime to include Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in December 2015 is considered in a postscript