One year after having given their political agreement for the establishment of a global human rights sanctions regime at the level of the European Union (see EUROPE 12386/5), the European Ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted such a regime on Monday 7 December.
This legal framework, which is currently empty, will allow measures to be taken, by unanimity, against persons, entities and bodies –both state and non-state actors – found by the EU to be responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses anywhere in the world. Currently, 280 people are sanctioned by the EU for human rights violations under geographic sanctions regimes.
The restrictive measures that may be imposed are a travel ban and an assets freeze for individuals and an assets freeze for entities. EU persons and entities will also be prohibited from making funds available to sanctioned persons and entities, either directly or indirectly.
The sanctions framework is valid for a period of 3 years, until 8 December 2023. However, each year, the list will need to be reviewed to see whether listed individuals and entities still have reason to be listed, and to update their data and reasons for listing, if necessary.
Sanctions could apply to acts such as genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious violations or abuses of human rights, such as torture, slavery, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrest or detention.
Widespread or systematic violations or abuses of human rights or which give rise to serious concerns with regard to the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy as set out in the Treaty (Article 21 of the TEU) could also be grounds for restrictive measures.
No sooner has this sanctions regime been adopted than it is already being criticised for not covering corruption. Lithuanian Minister Linas Linkevičius hoped that “in the future we will be able to include crimes also related to corruption”. According to a European source, this issue was debated, but was not included ultimately.
See Council Decision: https://bit.ly/36Tj5hb (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)