U.K. Announces "Magnitsky Act-style" Global Human Rights Sanctions And 49 Designations

• Published date: 10 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, International Law, Terrorism, Homeland Security & Defence, Money Laundering, Export Controls & Trade & Investment Sanctions, Human Rights
• Law Firm: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
• Author: Mr Jasper Helder, Isabel Foster, Cassandra Padget, Chiara Klaui and Daniel Lund

1. Introduction

• As of 1:00 p.m. BST July 6, 2020, the GHR Regulation came into force, representing the introduction of the U.K.'s long awaited GHR Regime.
  
  
• The GHR Regime is the first standalone U.K. sanctions regime to be in current operation under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. Various other U.K. sanctions regimes will take effect in the U.K. at the end of the transition period (currently scheduled for December 31 2020).
  
  
• Under the GHR Regime, 47 individuals of Russian, Saudi Arabian and Myanmar/Burmese nationality, and two North Korean entities, are subject to financial sanctions and/or travel bans. Further designations are expected to follow, possibly including those engaged in China's recent conduct in Hong Kong.
  
  
• The GHR Regulation marks a departure from the U.K.'s collective imposition of sanctions as a member of the European Union, in particular, as, post-Brexit, the U.K. will no longer be held back by the EU's requirement for unanimity amongst member states before designations are made. The EU has yet to introduce a global sanctions regime to specifically address human rights violations.

2. Background

In September 2019, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the government's intention to introduce unilateral post-Brexit 'Magnitsky' style sanctions for individuals deemed responsible for serious human rights abuses. So-called Magnitsky sanctions refer to the U.S. regime introduced to target officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died from mistreatment in a Russian prison in 2009, after revealing large-scale tax fraud. Similar regimes targeting human rights abusers exist in certain other countries, including Canada and Australia.

3. GHR Regulation

(a) Current Designations

The framework for designating human rights offenders (the 'GHR Regime') is intended to target individuals and organizations from all over the world that are involved in serious human rights violations or abuses. The designations announced on July 6 pursuant to the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 (the 'GHR Regulation') include:

• Twenty-five individuals of Russian nationality involved in the detention and mistreatment of Sergei Magnitsky before his death in November 2009, encapsulating several investigators, heads of detention centers/medical wards and court officials who together facilitated the mistreatment and denial of medical care to Sergei Magnitsky. All individuals are of Russian...