The UN Charter allows for the use of collective measures, i.e. 'sanctions', where there is deemed to be a threat to international peace and security. The UK is committed to the effective use of sanctions and believes that such measures can play an instrumental role in encouraging states to effect positive change on the ground.

The UK believes that sanctions can be most effective when they are focussed on exerting a coercive rather than punitive influence on state behaviour. States acting individually, or through regional cooperation, can of course play a key role in encouraging those states which pose a threat to peace and international security to change their behaviour. However the UK believes there is clear additional benefit in the pressure which can be brought to bear on countries through UN collective measures, principally because multilateral sanctions instruments place binding obligations upon a wider membership of the international community.

The UK therefore pursues its sanctions policy primarily through multilateral for a such as the UN, including through its permanent membership of the Security Council.

Further information is available on the UK mission to the UN website.