The UN Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee: Emerging Principles of International Institutional Law for the Protection of Individuals?

Abstract

Some time ago, one could read in the news about Mr. Abdelghani Mzoudi, the friend of the terror pilots of 9/11. He was acquitted of the accusation of aiding and abetting murder but he was not paid the owed compensation for wrongful imprisonment because his name was entered on a sanctions list of the UN. Many readers will have wondered how this could happen. Few if any will have guessed that we are in the middle of a case of international institutional law here, a process with actors on several levels (including a sanctions committee on the UN level), with different procedures and jurisdictions which can affect payments to an accused even after his acquittal. It is precisely this UN sanctions committee and its actions which form the subject of this paper.

The author would like to thank Prof. Dr. Armin von Bogdandy, Prof. Dr. Jan Klabbers and Matthias Goldmann for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article, and Eric Pickett and Eva Richter for checking the language and footnotes.