US Congress Introduces Ground-breaking Global Magnitsky Human Rights Bill To Fight Impunity All Over the World

February 2, 2015

Both cham­bers of the US Con­gress have intro­duced the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty bill, a deter­rent for klep­to­crats and human rights abusers around the world. The new bill expands and glob­al­izes the Mag­nit­sky Act of 2012, which cre­at­ed tar­get­ed visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights vio­la­tors in Russia.

“This is a poignant lega­cy for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a man who gave his life for his ideals, to have his name on a piece of leg­is­la­tion which will fight impuni­ty of human rights abusers and cor­rupt offi­cials around the world,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice movement.

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill has been intro­duced in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by Chris Smith, Chair­man of the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion   (http://www.csce.gov/), and Jim McGov­ern, Co-Chair­man of the Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion (http://tlhrc.house.gov/),  and in the Sen­ate by U.S. Sen­a­tors John McCain and Ben Cardin, with co-spon­sors U.S. Sen­a­tors Dick Durbin (D‑Ill.), Roger Wick­er (R‑Miss.), Jeanne Sha­heen (D‑NH), Mar­co Rubio (R‑Fla.), Ed Markey (D‑Mass.), Mark Kirk (R‑Ill.) and Richard Blu­men­thal (D‑Conn.) (http://www.cardin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/cardin-mccain-reintroduce-global-magnitsky-human-rights-accountability-act).

The House ver­sion of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill (H.R. 624) con­tains stronger lan­guage, in par­tic­u­lar, direct­ing rather than per­mit­ting the U.S. Pres­i­dent to impose sanc­tions on klep­to­crats and gross human rights vio­la­tors. It also assigns the U.S. Comp­trol­ler Gen­er­al to exam­ine and report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the leg­is­la­tion. The House ver­sion of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill also requires the sanc­tions list to be pub­lished annu­al­ly on 10 Decem­ber, which marks the Human Rights Day in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the adop­tion by the Unit­ed Nations of the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights in 1948.

The pre­vi­ous Mag­nit­sky Act of 2012 was a prece­dent set­ting piece of leg­is­la­tion requir­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment to con­front impuni­ty, and cre­ate con­se­quences for those involved in human rights atroc­i­ties in Rus­sia, includ­ing the tor­ture and killing of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The tar­get­ed sanc­tions includ­ed visa bans and asset freez­ing, as well as a mech­a­nism through which the sanc­tioned indi­vid­u­als are pub­licly named, cre­at­ing a real con­se­quence for human rights abusers in Russia.

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill extends these tools to for­eign gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their senior asso­ciates respon­si­ble for or com­plic­it in order­ing, con­trol­ling or direct­ing “acts of sig­nif­i­cant cor­rup­tion, …bribery, or trans­fer of the pro­ceeds of cor­rup­tion to for­eign juris­dic­tions” and those who “mate­ri­al­ly assist­ed, spon­sored, or pro­vid­ed finan­cial, mate­r­i­al, or tech­no­log­i­cal sup­port” for such activities.

The gen­e­sis of the 2012 Mag­nit­sky Act and the extra­or­di­nary sto­ry of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, whose name now lives in the U.S. law, are fea­tured in the explo­sive new book by William Brow­der, “Red Notice,” which will be pub­lished on 3 Feb­ru­ary 2015.

U.S. Sen­a­tor McCain said ahead of the book launch this week:

“In ‘Red Notice’, Bill Brow­der tells the har­row­ing and inspir­ing sto­ry of how his fight for jus­tice in Rus­sia made him an unlike­ly inter­na­tion­al human rights leader and Vladimir Putin’s num­ber-one enemy.”

To learn more about ‘Red Notice,’ vis­it the book web­site: http://billbrowder.com

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