The United Nations Security Council, under Chapter VII of the Charter, has the authority to enforce mandatory sanctions upon a State in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. This action is intended to apply pressure on a State or entity without the use of armed force or military action. The use of sanctions is critical to the ability of the United Nations to enforce its decisions effectively. Threats to peace and failure of diplomatic efforts have left the Council with no choice but to resort to mandatory sanctions. Along with trade and economic sanctions, more specific actions have been taken, such as arms embargoes, travel bans, and financial or diplomatic restrictions.

In response to expressed concerns about the negative impact sanctions can have on the economy of developing countries, relevant Security Council decisions have reflected a more refined approach to the design, application and implementation of mandatory sanctions. A number of updated sanctioning strategies have been used to target specific actors and to provide for humanitarian exceptions spelled out in Security Council resolutions. Three countries that have been subject to the Security Council's sanctioning strategies are Iran, North Korea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 9/11 attacks on the United States placed North Korea on the axis of evil list, as the country's possession of nuclear weapons still poses a serious threat to the world. In October 2006, as a follow-up of North Korea's nuclear test, Security Council members imposed sanctions on the country's government. In addition to economic and financial sanctions, also included was an embargo on military and technological materials and luxury goods. On March 17, 2007, North Korea announced that it would begin to shut down preparations for its main nuclear facility, surprising the delegates attending the international nuclear talks. As a result of their initiating the shutdown phases of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the nation has received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil shipped from South Korea. When the six-nation talks, which include China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the US and North Korea, commence, the state will receive close to 1 million tons of fuel oil. The issue now stands at whether or not the United States will lift the previous sanction bans and remove North Korea from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Some type of sanctions on Iran have been imposed since 1979, at the time of the Islamic revolution and the hostage crisis. The United States continues to impose various additional sanctions against Tehran. The United States has publicly accused the Iranian government of developing nuclear weapons and sponsoring or funding terrorism abroad. The fact that the United States has blocked US-based oil companies from operating in Iran gives the US a strong incentive to seek that the UN, as a whole, accept the sanctions, so that competing oil companies based in other countries would not take away the clout of the US sanctions by offering alternatives to Iran. The crisis over the possible development of nuclear weapons by Iran has led the international community (in the guise of the UN Security Council) to use the threat of sanctions to compet Iran to heed international concerns about its nuclear activity. A large question regards the extent of these sanctions and their possible efficacy.

Throughout the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, since the nation's independence from Belgium in 1959, violence has been the prevailing state of affairs. In 1999, Belgium signed on to a cease-fire agreement with several other neighboring countries. Armed conflict continued in the eastern part of the country to the extent that the Security Council imposed a 12-month arms embargo in July 2003, which, in 2005, was expanded throughout the entire territory of the DRC. Additionally, a travel ban was imposed upon those responsible for the conflict; their assets were also frozen. The enormous size of the region, as large as Western Europe, has caused much difficulty for the UN in its attempts to implement the arms embargo. More funds have been repeatedly requested by Kofi Annan, but the US has been in opposition to increasing the amount of peacekeepers, arguing that $1 billion is already too much to spend on the situation. The death toll in this region is greater than that in Sudan's Darfur region.

Questions to consider:

•  How do the recent developments regarding North Korea and Iran affect your nation's security?

•  What is your country's position regarding the rights of North Korea and Iran as sovereign states to make decisions about nuclear development independent of imposed international authority?

•  What is your nation's capacity for assisting with the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

•  What is your country's opinion on the effectiveness of the several sanctions that have been imposed upon these three developing nations? What about the debate over the humanitarian impact of sanctions?