In an unprecedented move, the US Treasury Department on December 10, 2021 imposed sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and six of its serving and former officials, including ex-director general Benazir Ahmed, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The same day, the State Department also imposed sanctions on Benazir and another RAB official.
Now the question arises: what do we know about the law?
Global Magnitsky is the first of a new generation of human rights sanctions programmes. Some of the programmes are Canada's Sergei Magnitsky Law, the UK's Global Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Regulations, and the EU's restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses.
But considering practical application, the US law is by far the most active of the four programmes. As of November, it targeted over 300 individuals and entities from 40 countries.
The law named after Sergei Magnitsky-- a Russian accountant who was tortured, denied medical attention, and found dead in a Moscow jail in 2009 a year after his arrest -- was passed by the US Congress in 2012.
Magnitsky was targeted by the Russian authorities for his role in exposing a giant tax fraud scheme allegedly involving high-level government officials.
In 2016, the US built on the original Russia-focused Magnitsky law and enacted the Global Magnitsky Act, allowing the executive branch to impose visa bans and targeted sanctions on individuals anywhere in the world responsible for committing human rights violations or acts of significant corruption.
Also Read Congressman Meeks says he strongly supports sanctions on RAB and its officials
Then US president Barack Obama signed the law, which received widespread bipartisan support, on December 23, 2016.
The act is due to expire in December this year. Estonia passed a similar law in 2016.
What Does The Law Do?
It authorizes the US president to block or revoke the visas of certain “foreign persons” (both individuals and entities) or to impose property sanctions on them. The sanctions can be applied to those responsible for or an agent for someone responsible for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Government officials or senior associates of government officials complicit in “acts of significant corruption” can also face such sanctions.
The law promotes respect for human rights at all levels of government by enabling the US executive branch to apply targeted sanctions on any individual involved in a human rights violation, from senior officials to low-level officers and even nongovernment associates. These sanctions can take the form of asset freezes for funds held in US banks and bans on visas for coming to the US.
It functions as a deterrent, forcing foreign officials at all levels who would use unlawful violence or corruption to consider repercussions from the US government. The act also provides incentives to foreign governments to improve their own accountability mechanisms. By cooperating with the US on Global Magnitsky investigations, foreign leaders can show that they will not tolerate human rights abusers in their own countries.
How effective are the sanctions?
Sanctions imposed under the US law deny individuals entry into the country, allow the seizure of any of their property held in the country, and effectively prevent them from entering into transactions with large numbers of banks and companies. Both American and international firms with American subsidiaries run the risk of violating US sanctions if they do business with sanctioned people.
Who can recommend sanctioning individuals?
The law allows the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, in consultation with other State Department officials, to submit recommendations for people to be sanctioned to the secretary of state. The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House can also submit names to the president.
In determining whether to impose sanctions, the president can also review credible information obtained by other countries or non-government organizations monitoring human rights violations. It requires the US president to consider congressional requests to determine whether a foreign person has engaged in activity attracting sanctions, and to respond within 120 days.
The decision about whether to carry out the sanctions is most likely made jointly by the State Department and Treasury Department, according to Human Rights Watch.
In the US and the UK, governments are required to report to Congress and parliament once a year on their implementation of human rights sanctions.
