EU agrees Magnitsky Act-like system to target rights abusers

The European Union is setting up a system similar to the Magnitsky Act in the United States that enables the bloc to impose sanctions on officials and organizations responsible for human rights abuses

Belgium EU Foreign Ministers (AFP or Licensors)

The European Union agreed Monday to set up a system similar to the Magnitsky Act in the United States that enables the bloc to impose sanctions on officials and organizations responsible for human rights abuses .

The bloc’s foreign ministers sealed the agreement at talks in Brussels and said it underlines that “the promotion and protection of human rights remain a cornerstone and priority of EU external action and reflects the EU’s determination to address serious human rights violations and abuses.”

The move allows the bloc “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 EU said in a statement.

Concretely, the 27 EU nations could ban targeted people from travelling in Europe and freeze the assets of both officials and “entities” like organizations, companies or banks. Europeans will also be forbidden to make funds available to them.

The sanctions would apply for acts like genocide, crimes against humanity, serious human rights violations or abuses such as torture, slavery, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary arrests. Other violations could be punished if they are “widespread, systematic or are otherwise of serious concern.”

The EU routinely imposes sanctions on officials and organizations linked to specific acts, such as Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and its destabilization of Ukraine. The new human rights measures will be part of its “thematic” sanctions, which include the use of chemical weapons, cyber-attacks and terrorism.