Sanctions Often Follow Human Rights Abuses Amid Disputed Elections

Yesterday’s sanctions against top Iran officials seemed unique in that they required an executive order to bring down the hammer.

Turns out that’s not the case.

There are several examples of OFAC sanctions handed down via executive orders connected to human rights violations surrounding a disputed election, such as Belarus (pdf), Zimbabwe (pdf) and Burma (pdf), all of which the U.S. said were undermining democratic institutions. At the end of August, President Obama issued an executive order authorizing sanctions on North Korea (pdf) after it allegedly sank a South Korean battleship. Those sanctions targeted the alleged mastermind of the sinking, Kim Yong Chol.

This is the first time they’re being used in Iran, though, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said when announcing the sanctions. “We would like to be able to tell you that it might be the last, but we fear not,” she said.

As for their desired effect, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner observed: “We have found that when we single out individuals and expose their conduct, banks, businesses, and governments around the world respond by cutting off their economic and financial dealings with these individuals, these institutions, these businesses.”


(2010-10-01/The wall street journal)