Sanctions

The purpose of sanctions is to influence a country to stop with a certain type of behavior or to implement reforms, for example to persuade the country to cease with systematic insults of human rights or to make the country affiliate with democratic principles.

Directed sanctions
Since a few years back directed sanctions are primary used to influence. Directed sanctions focus on a specific product, organization or person, instead of a country. This can for example be financial restrictions (freezing of assets or other economical resources, restrictions on financial transactions, investment restrictions) and trade restrictions for specific products, like weapons, diamonds and oil, or services. 

UN and EU sanctions
The UN safety council can, according to the UN constitution chapter VII, take collective sanction measures to maintain international peace and safety. When the safety council has decided on sanctions the member states are under obligation to carry out the measures and implement the regulations in their own legal system.

EU can decide on international sanctions within the frame for the common foreign and safety policies. There can either be a decision on carrying through UN sanctions or independent decisions on sanctions. This happens when the EU ministry council enacts on a common standpoint. The measures that are to be taken within the eligibility of the union are carried through in an EU regulation that is directly applicable in national Swedish jurisdiction. The EU regulation can appoint certain tasks to be handled by qualified authorities in each member country. Other measures fall under the member countries’ own authorization and are carried out through national legislation.