Once the Security Council decides to apply sanctions, it must decide which of a range of possible measures to employ. Article 41 outlines an inclusive, rather than an exclusive or exhaustive, list of measures that might be taken to address threats to the peace, breaches of the peace or aggression. It thus provides the Security Council with considerable flexibility to determine which particular measures might be appropriate for each individual case. The Council also has broad discretion concerning the target(s) against which sanctions are to be applied.

The many types of UN sanctions

In practice, the scope of sanctions employed by the Security Council has varied from sanctions regime to sanctions regime and even within a particular regime, as the Council has expanded or contracted the measures applied in order to induce or reward a target's compliance. With the exception of regimes consisting of basic arms embargoes, no two sanctions regimes have been precisely the same. Sanctions regimes usually contain a blend of different types of sanctions. These can be broadly divided into the categories of economic and financial sanctions, and non-economic sanctions.

In order to determine the scope of a particular sanctions regime at a particular time, it is necessary to take into account both the range of prohibitions directed against a target, as well as any exemptions provided from those prohibitions. Almost every UN sanctions regime has contained exemptions of some description. Sanctions committees are generally tasked with responsibility for receiving and deciding upon applications for exemptions.