U.N. Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee

Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee is charged with maintaining and disseminating a list al Qaeda and Taliban members, and associated individuals and entities. This list provides the basis for action against these individuals and entities which includes imposing and policing specific sanctions measures aimed at freezing their assets, curbing their mobility, and cutting off their access to weapons and explosives. A new draft has more precise criteria for designating these individuals and entities on this list. However, the new draft must not create such additional criteria that the list becomes more time consuming and more difficult to make. The new draft also requests that Interpol integrate the list into its own database. Absent from the new draft is any provisions that would expand and tighten the measures now applied to al Qaeda and Taliban members, associates, and entities. An earlier draft sought provisions to strengthen the role of the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee monitoring team by charging it with identifying countries which failed to implement the measures. This provision was dropped in the face of political opposition. The result is that the new draft continues to retain close Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee control over the monitoring team and reducing any likelihood of an effective name and shame role. These control measures include requirements that the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee monitoring team submit a comprehensive program of work to the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee for its review, approval, consult with governments prior to traveling to their country, consult with such governments again following any trip and take into account their comments with regard to any references made concerning the report, and the monitoring teams final reports are subject to debate, review, and approval by the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee before issuance and release.