Malta has been successful in its role in multilateral sanctions for years, and its 2023-24 tenure on the United Nations (UN) Security Council is no different.
On Friday, July 19, all 15 members of the Security Council voted in favour of a sanctions resolution that Malta co-authored with the United States, introducing a new Focal Point Mechanism to strengthen the effectiveness of UN sanctions.
The resolution obtained 52 co-sponsors, including all 27 European Union member states – a feat considering the technical nature of the subject. This shows the high-level political commitment of the international community towards this important initiative.
The other co-sponsors range from Bahrain to Ukraine, and the resolution is being favourably considered by many of the UN member states, given the major success that it represents.
It has been almost 18 years since the Security Council first introduced the Focal Point to receive de-listing requests from sanctioned persons. Over the years, this procedure had become outdated, undermining the credibility of Security Council sanctions.
The Focal Point Mechanism that Malta and the US have now created, with the support of many other UN member states, has completely overhauled this previously inadequate procedure.
Sanctions are a powerful tool of foreign policy. Their credibility is linked to their ability to be reviewed, scaled up, scaled down, established or removed entirely.
Targeted sanctions against individuals involve an asset freeze and a travel ban, and the Security Council’s sanctions are the strongest in the world: they oblige every UN member to implement them, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. This can involve heavy reputational harm, as, once a person is sanctioned, it is very difficult to be de-listed.
While it is very difficult to be sanctioned by the Security Council, it was even more difficult to have your de-listing request heard before the new resolution was approved this month. This meant that most persons targeted by the Security Council remained on the list.
Through the new procedure, the UN will appoint a Focal Point who can meet and engage with persons seeking their de-listing, by interviewing them, listening to their side of the story and gathering information from a wide variety of sources.
The Focal Point will then produce fact-based reports and present them to sanctions committees, which will decide the de-listing requests. If unsuccessful, the reasons for rejection will be provided to the petitioner.
In this regard, the UN resolution proposed by Malta and the US will create real change, establishing discussions of de-listing requests in sanctions committees, providing petitioners with the right to be heard and taken seriously, as well as giving them clear reasoning for the decisions taken. This resolution will give a much-needed boost to the credibility of the Security Council’s targeted sanctions.
Sanctions are a powerful tool of foreign policy- Ian Borg
An enormous amount of work went into this resolution, well before negotiations formally started months ago. In foreign policy, experts, diplomats and politicians work together to plant the seeds of change and innovation and this resolution was no exception.
Through this resolution, we also re-established an Informal Working Group on General Issues of UN Security Council Sanctions, which we had already been pursuing in 2023, primarily to give the experts involved a structure to their work.
This working group will report to the Security Council annually and its reports will be published so that the wider UN membership can remain seized of the most pressing general issues on sanctions at the Security Council.
I am glad that, together with the experts involved, and after long hours of engagement and negotiations spanning over a year, we have secured this important achievement.
We managed to significantly boost due process and transparency in the Security Council’s targeted sanctions process.
We thank all involved, including the Maltese and American diplomats who drafted the resolution, all Council members for their engagement on the text, the representatives of the 52 co-sponsors and all other stakeholders in the international community at large.
I have always believed that, irrespective of the serious challenges the international community faces, there is always an important space for diplomacy. Our role is to use this space for the good of all.
Malta has a team of outstanding diplomats and it is my duty to ensure they feel empowered and motivated to keep punching above their weight at all bilateral and multilateral levels.
We have a lot to contribute. As this Security Council resolution has shown, that is exactly what we are doing.
Ian Borg is minister for foreign affairs and the 2024 chairperson of the OSCE.