HC Deb 17 September 2003 vol 410 cc788-9W
Mr. Gardiner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response his Department made to the UN Panel of Experts Fowler Report on its recommendations for secondary sanctions against states that have been complicit in breaching UN arms embargoes. [129864]

Mr. Rammell

The UK supported the recommendation by the Fowler Report to place secondary sanctions against countries complicit in breaching the UN arms embargo against Angola (UNITA) (UNSCR 864(1993). But the UK recognised that there were a number of practical difficulties to overcome, not least gaining consensus amongst Security Council members that there would be sufficient proof to declare a State guilty of deliberate sanctions busting. Initially the issue was kept alive by UNSCR 1295(2000), passed subsequent to the Fowler Report on 18 April 2000. Paragraph 5 of the resolution expressedits readiness…to consider appropriate action in accordance with the Charter in relation to States it determines to have violated the measures contained in those [ie sanctions] resolutions, and establishes 18 November 2000 as the deadline for an initial decision in this regard". But when the Security Council considered the Monitoring Mechanism's (delayed) report in February 2001, Canada called for the Security Council to focus on imposing secondary sanctions, and did so again in November 2001; each time without success due to a lack of consensus.

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