The sanctions space is very active and changes are made frequently. This publication is current as of December 21, 2020...

This new sanctions regime, following the approach of the UK and several countries, provides for sanctions such as travel bans and the freezing of assets, regardless of where in the world the human rights violations occurred...

This new framework is the latest in a recent trend following the adoption of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in the United States in 2016, authorizing targeted sanctions on individuals involved in human rights abuses worldwide.

Since then, several countries have adopted similar sanctions regimes including Canada, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In July 2020, the UK introduced the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations...

The adoption by the EU of such an extraterritorial human rights sanctions regime is a significant and critical development, as the EU will now be able to target human rights violations without being limited to existing geographical sanctions regimes. This new regulation follows the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024...

Under this Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998, restrictive measures can apply to individuals or entities (including State and non-State actors) involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations or abuses such as torture, slavery, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings, enforced disappearance of persons and arbitrary arrests or detentions.

The new sanctions regime also targets other human rights violations or abuses that are widespread, systematic or are otherwise of serious concern as regards the objectives of the common foreign and security policy set out in Article 21 of the Treaty of the European Union. This can include trafficking in human beings, sexual and gender-based violence, or violations or abuses of freedoms (freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of opinion and expression or freedom of religion or belief)...