Americas

Americas

US senators seek to extend Magnitsky sanctions globally

17 January 2014 07:26 (UTC +04:00)

“Gross violators of human rights from Zimbabwe to Ukraine, and Honduras to Papua New Guinea, are put on notice that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions even when their home country fails to act,” US Senator Benjamin Cardin, who introduced the bill with Senator John McCain, said in a statement.

Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, was a co-author of the Magnitsky Act, a US law introducing sanctions on Russians that Washington has implicated in the 2009 death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as other Russians accused of rights abuses.

Like the Magnitsky Act, which Russia calls unacceptable meddling in its domestic affairs, the bill would punish targeted individuals anywhere in the world with visa and financial sanctions and publicly name them while also allowing for a classified list. “Standing up for the rule of law and establishing clear consequences for abuses of fundamental human rights serves our nation’s interests and reflects of deepest values,” McCain, an Arizona Republican fiercely critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in the statement.

As with the Magnitsky legislation, the bill would require the White House to submit to federal lawmakers a list of designated individuals that it determines to be responsible for “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” against whistleblowers and rights advocates.