This report, funded by the Swedish Red Cross and performed at Uppsala University's Department of Peace and Conflict Research, strives to provide an overview of the academic literature on how targeted sanctions impact civilian well-being; explore humanitarian consequences of targeted sanctions through three case studies – Sudan, Syria, and Somalia – and; analyze the cases comparatively to better understand how their respective sanctions regimes include varying degrees of humanitarian exemptions. The researchers find that Sudan has the weakest humanitarian exemptions. Syria exemplifies a comparative middle ground, and Somalia has the strongest humanitarian exemptions of the three cases.