Describing the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee as the “most non-transparent” of the UN Security Council’s subsidiary bodies, India has voiced its concern over the lack of criteria of listing individuals and organizations on whom sanctions are applied.
“In this debate about transparency we need to mention that the most non-transparent of the subsidiary bodies of the Security Council is the 1267 Al Qaida Sanctions Committee,” visiting Lok Sabha MP, Bhartruhari Mahtab said at an open debate on ‘Working Methods’ of the Security Council.
He said no information is shared on the criteria of listing or not listing individuals and organizations on whom sanctions are applied.
“It is our apprehension that there may, in fact, be no criteria at all. And that any of the 15 members may be allowed to exercise a veto without assigning any reason and without the wider membership being informed of their having done so,” he said.
He pointed out that in April this year, the new Chair of the Sanctions Committee had organized a briefing for the wider membership of the UN and said that he would hold such meetings periodically.
The Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee (previously known as the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee) was established on 15 October 1999, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1267 concerning Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and/or the Taliban and associated individuals and entities.
The committee is a Security Council subsidiary organ that oversees the implementation by member states of the three sanctions measures — assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo — imposed against targeted individuals and entities associated with al-Qaeda, as designated by the Committee in its sanctions list.
It has subsequently been modified to deal with issues limited to al-Qaeda. The Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee is one of three Security Council committees dealing with counter-terrorism. The other two committees are the Counter-Terrorism Committee established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001), and the Security Council Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1540 (2004).
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The Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, like other Security Council committees, is composed of Member State representatives from the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council. These are the five permanent members, China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, and ten other rotating members.