Mon 07 December 2020:
The European Union on Monday adopted a new global sanctions regime for use against human rights violations, according to a statement by the bloc.
“For the first time, the EU is equipping itself with a framework that will allow it to target individuals, entities and bodies – including state and non-state actors – responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, no matter where they occurred,” the statement said.
“Such restrictive measures will provide for a travel ban applying to individuals, and the freezing of funds applying to both individuals and entities. In addition, persons and entities in the EU will be forbidden from making funds available to those listed, either directly or indirectly,” it added.
The measures will be applied to human rights violations such as genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, slavery, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests or detentions.
The new regime has been debated for years. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Global Magnitsky (Human Rights Accountability) Act, adopted by the US Congress in 2016, represents not only the first legal instrument addressing human rights violations worldwide, but also the main legal model.
According to europeanpapers it will provide the EU with greater flexibility to target perpetrators of human rights abuses worldwide. Since the new global regime emphasizes the individual responsibility of targeted persons (rather than their nationality), it dissolves the geographical link with third countries.
Non-state entities, mainly physical persons, are the true “subjects” of this new policy, and, in this way, the Union has the opportunity to become a swifter decision-maker and a more effective actor when addressing human rights perpetrators, thus avoiding potential political, economic and strategic conflicts of interests with third countries and economic partners (inter alia Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or China).
