The UN Security Council has imposed an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo on members of the ‘Islamic State’ and Al-Qaida, and it maintains a list of individuals and entities subject to these sanctions.

Individuals and entities placed on the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List may submit a request for delisting to the Ombudsperson. The Office of the Ombudsperson is an important mechanism for upholding the procedural guarantees of human rights within the UN sanctions regime. After reviewing such requests, the Ombudsperson makes a recommendation to the relevant UN sanctions committee either to keep the individual or entity on the list or to consider delisting. This is an important role, given that the UN sanctions committee has concurred with all recommendations made by the Ombudsperson to date.

Along with a group of like-minded states, Switzerland played a major part in establishing the Office of the Ombudsperson in 2009.

Daniel Kipfer Fasciati has been a judge of the Federal Criminal Court since 2004 and served as its president from 2014 to 2017. His role as Ombudsperson is in a personal capacity. As with the appointment of Ambassador Christine Schraner Burgener as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar in April 2018, the acceptance of this mandate by Daniel Kipfer Fasciati further strengthens Swiss presence in leading positions at international organisations.

Daniel Kipfer Fasciati appointed as Ombudsperson for UN counter-terrorism sanctions regime