Global Magnitsky Act Receives Unanimous Approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

July 30, 2015

30 July 2015 — Yes­ter­day, in a land­mark vote, the U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee unan­i­mous­ly approved “The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act,” paving the way for its approval for a full vote in the Sen­ate. The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act extends the con­cept of per­son­alised sanc­tions on klep­to­crats and human rights vio­la­tors around the world, giv­ing hope to vic­tims from any coun­try where those abus­es occurred.
“Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s epic bat­tle against evil, his faith in the law, and his ulti­mate sac­ri­fice con­tin­ue to empow­er and inspire law­mak­ers around the world to take con­crete action and cre­ate real con­se­quences for human rights abusers”, said William Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice campaign.

The new leg­is­la­tion is authored by U.S. Sen­a­tor Ben Cardin (D‑MD), Rank­ing Mem­ber of the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, who in 2010 togeth­er with Sen­a­tor John McCain ini­ti­at­ed the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act,” an inno­v­a­tive 21-cen­tu­ry piece of leg­is­la­tion that for the first time has pro­vid­ed redress and a mean­ing­ful way to deter impuni­ty for cor­rup­tion and human rights abus­es in Russia. 

The Rus­sia-spe­cif­ic Mag­nit­sky bill became law in Decem­ber 2012. Over 30 per­sons have been includ­ed on the pub­lic sanc­tions list since. Per­sons includ­ed on the sanc­tions list are pub­licly named on the fed­er­al reg­is­ter, pro­hib­it­ed from obtain­ing U.S. visas and sub­ject to a freeze on all their U.S. assets and bank accounts. 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill autho­ris­es the Pres­i­dent to cre­ate sim­i­lar con­se­quences for per­sons involved in cor­rup­tion, extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture and oth­er human rights vio­la­tions from all coun­tries around the world. 

“This is an impor­tant step in a long road of tar­get­ing human rights abusers and cor­rupt indi­vid­u­als around the globe who threat­en the rule of law and deny human rights or fun­da­men­tal free­doms,” said Sen­a­tor Cardin.

The bill autho­rizes the Sec­re­tary of State and the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury to report annu­al­ly to Con­gress regard­ing actions tak­en against human rights abusers. In deter­min­ing the sanc­tions list, the Pres­i­dent must con­sid­er requests made by the Chair­per­son and Rank­ing Mem­ber of one of a num­ber of con­gres­sion­al committee.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:
Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org

See also the US Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee press release on the pass­ing of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill:
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/cardin-legislation-the-global-magnitsky-human-rights-accountability-act-approved-by-senate-foreign-relations-committee

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