DAR AL HARB - U.K.: ECONOMIC SANCTIONS SHOULD NOT BE THE ONLY THING USED TO RESOLVE DISPUTES

House of Lords warning on economic sanctions use

Economic sanctions should not be relied on to resolve ongoing disputes with Iran and North Korea, an all party House of Lords committee warned Wednesday.

A report by the Economic Affairs Committee made clear that previous attempts by Britain and America to apply sanctions against other countries have backfired.Sanctions isolated from other forms of diplomatic pressure are unlikely to force major policy change and may even be counterproductive, it said.

The measures against Iraq had a major economic impact and generally weakened the regime. However, the threat of potential invasion and the continuation of targeted bombing in the 1990s were also important factors in Iraq's disarmament.

The Committee stressed the immense human cost of sanctions in Iraq. The use of comprehensive sanctions forced the population to rely on food rations distributed by the government.

The Committee said this not only caused terrible hardship for the population but actually strengthened the regime in terms of domestic control by giving it a new instrument of political pressure and control.

The Committee also criticised the UK's use of sanctions against Burma.

It argued that the policy of discouraging trade, investment and tourism hit the economy generally and harmed ordinary Burmese people and so could not accurately be described as targeted sanctions.

The Committee pointed out that this directly contradicted the British Government's principle that sanctions should have "clear objectives, including well defined and realistic demands against which compliance can be judged and a clear exit strategy".

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Pertinent Links:

1) House of Lords warning on economic sanctions use