Authority and purpose
SECO is the Swiss federal centre of expertise responsible for economic-policy matters including the implementation of sanctions and embargoes. Switzerland uses coercive measures to implement international sanctions, particularly measures originating from the United Nations and important trading partners such as the European Union, through Swiss legal ordinances.
Switzerland is required to implement binding UN Security Council sanctions. Decisions about adopting EU measures are taken by Switzerland under its own process; EU changes therefore should not be assumed to apply in Switzerland automatically or identically.
SESAM and Swiss ordinances
SECO provides a search service for sanctioned individuals, companies and organizations and an overall structured dataset commonly associated with SESAM. Records are grouped through Swiss sanctions programmes and ordinances. The ordinances and their annexes provide the legal basis for measures in Switzerland, while the searchable data helps users locate named subjects.
A record may include a Swiss sanctions identifier, subject type, names and aliases in one or more languages or scripts, birth information, nationality, addresses, identification documents, programme details and the Swiss ordinance or annex associated with the entry.
Important Swiss peculiarities
- Swiss sanctions take legal effect through Swiss measures and ordinances, even where the underlying policy originates from the UN or EU.
- The consolidated search data spans multiple ordinances rather than representing one single sanctions programme.
- Different language and script versions may be grouped within a record and can produce several legitimate forms of the same name.
- The exact restrictions, exceptions and effective dates must be checked in the applicable ordinance and annex.
Changes and removal
SECO updates its data when the responsible Swiss legal act or incorporated sanctions list changes. Depending on the regime, a change may follow a UN committee decision, a Swiss decision to adopt or amend measures, a correction, or a delisting process. Because Switzerland makes its own decisions concerning EU measures, timing and coverage can differ from the EU consolidated dataset.
Official verification
- Search for the subject using SECO's official sanctions-subject search.
- Confirm the Swiss identifier, programme and all available identity fields.
- Open the corresponding sanctions ordinance and current annex on the official Swiss publication platform.
- Check SECO notices and guidance for recent amendments, exceptions or procedures relevant to the case.
- SECO sanctions overview and official search access
- SECO services: search for sanctioned subjects
- Fedlex: official Swiss federal law and ordinances
A matching EU entry does not prove that an identical Swiss measure applies, and a Swiss result should be interpreted through the corresponding Swiss ordinance.