Publication

This report assesses the criteria used by the UN’s Security Council to terminate sanctions in intrastate war situations. In particular, the author examines the UN’s authority to impose sanctions and the corresponding limits on these powers as well as the existing practices for reducing sanctions. She argues that the UN’s criteria for reductions of sanctions should be based on concrete and realizable benchmarks and that when the objectives of a sanctions regime are met, sanctions should be amended, repealed, or terminated as soon as possible. She also argues that the practice of applying incentives can be instrumental to the termination of conflict.