The policy group monitors the political situation and the sanction initiatives of national governments, and evaluates proposed sanctions in light of the project's guiding principles and precedents in international law and norms, including those governing fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and access to information. If a sanction is deemed in-scope, the policy group defines the sanctioned entities and passes them to the OSINT group. The policy group is also responsible for determining when existing sanctions should be repealed.
The work of the policy group is done on the discussion mailing list (which you're welcome to join, or you can consult its archives of past discussion) and its results are published here.
Thoughts and Articles
Open Issues
- The "human shield" problem
- The "more specific domain" question
- Data formatting issues
- Intake database
- Conflict with Privacy Law
Specific Sanction Reviews
2022
Multiple vs. Russia and Belarus
Near the end of February 2022, a number of governments and regional organizations adopted sanctions against a wide range of targets in Russia and Belarus more than a thousand entities in Russia, in connection with Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. This included asset freezes against a range of individuals and entities, travel bans against individuals and restrictions on a wide number of sectors, goods and activities, including financial transactions and sanctions against technology companies. In some cases, the sanctions supplemented preexisting ones associated with Russia's 2014 military invasion of Ukraine. Discussion of these sanctions can be found here. The adoption of new sanctions was accompanied by a widespread voluntary boycott of Russia of companies around the world, which amplifies the impact of the sanctions in place.
Afghanistan vs. United States et al.
A number of actions taken by governments or other groups may resemble sanction, but are not considered as such in legal terms. An example is the banning of access to certain media outlets. In March, 2022, the Afghan government banned Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Deutsche Welle. Discussion of these sanctions can be found here.
United States vs. Iran
In March, 2022, the United States government added Iranian procurement agent Mohammad Ali Hosseini and his associated companies to existing sanctions aimed at Iran's ballistic missile development program. Discussion of these sanctions can be found here.
