Canadian Parliament Formally Recommends the Canadian Government Adopt Magnitsky Sanctions Against Human Rights Violators

April 7, 2017

Press Release
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment For­mal­ly Rec­om­mends the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment Adopt Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Against Human Rights Violators

6 April 2017 – Today, the Cana­di­an Parliament’s Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs has issued a for­mal rec­om­men­da­tion to the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to update the exist­ing sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion with the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions against human rights violators.
In their rec­om­men­da­tion, the Com­mit­tee said: “In hon­our of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to expand the scope under which sanc­tions mea­sures can be enact­ed, includ­ing in cas­es of gross human rights violations.”

The Mag­nit­sky rec­om­men­da­tions include:

1) Freez­ing assets of human rights violators,

2) Ban­ning their entry to Canada,

3) Pub­lish­ing a list of peo­ple and enti­ties sub­ject to these sanc­tions, and

4) Con­duct­ing an annu­al review of the Cana­di­an gov­ern­men­t’s enforce­ment of the legislation.

The rec­om­men­da­tion was inspired by the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia, but has been expand­ed to apply to human rights vio­la­tors globally.
The Com­mit­tee concluded:

“While orig­i­nal­ly focused on address­ing the human rights sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia, catal­ysed by the trag­ic case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, this move­ment now calls for the appli­ca­tion of sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors glob­al­ly, and was instru­men­tal in the pass­ing of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act in the U.S.”

The report by Canada’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee cites William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign:
“Effec­tive­ly, with a Mag­nit­sky act, whether it be a Russ­ian act specif­i­cal­ly or a glob­al act, it would give peo­ple some hope that in Cana­da, the Unit­ed States, and oth­er places, peo­ple do care.”

The Cana­di­an Mag­nit­sky Rec­om­men­da­tion is a result of a five-month review of the sanc­tions regime con­duct­ed in the Canada’s House of Commons.
“The Com­mit­tee heard com­pelling tes­ti­mo­ny from a num­ber of high­ly-respect­ed human rights activists regard­ing how sanc­tions can be a poten­tial­ly valu­able tool in the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights. They rec­om­mend­ed that Cana­da expand the leg­isla­tive author­i­ty under which the gov­ern­ment can impose sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors,” says the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee report.

The report by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee quotes Zhan­na Nemtso­va, founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foun­da­tion for Free­dom, named after her father, a Russ­ian pro-democ­ra­cy advo­cate who was mur­dered in 2015, saying:

“These are not sanc­tions against a coun­try or even a gov­ern­ment. These are sanc­tions against spe­cif­ic indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for cor­rup­tion and for abus­ing human rights.”

The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs was tasked with the review of the sanc­tions regime on 14 April 2016 by the Canada’s House of Commons.
The Com­mit­tee held the review from Octo­ber 2016, by con­duct­ing 13 hear­ings where dif­fer­ent experts tes­ti­fied on the leg­is­la­tion. The com­mit­tee assessed relat­ed pol­i­cy issues from gov­ern­ment offi­cials, aca­d­e­mics, researchers, stake­hold­ers and practitioners.

Today, the Com­mit­tee pub­lished its final report rec­om­mend­ing the Gov­ern­ment adopts the Mag­nit­sky sanctions.
As part of its rec­om­men­da­tions, the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee called for the Gov­ern­ment to pub­lish a list of sanc­tioned persons:

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should pro­duce and main­tain a com­pre­hen­sive, pub­lic and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble list of all indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties tar­get­ed by Cana­di­an sanc­tions con­tain­ing all infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to assist with the prop­er iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of those listed.”

The For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee also rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment pub­lish­es an annu­al report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the sanc­tions regime.

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to require the pro­duc­tion of an annu­al report by the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, to be tabled in each House of Par­lia­ment with­in six months of the fis­cal year-end, which would detail the objec­tives of all orders and reg­u­la­tions made pur­suant to that Act and actions tak­en for their implementation.”

The next step is for the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er the parliament’s rec­om­men­da­tion and draft legislation.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
billbrowder.com
Twitter.com/Billbrowder
 

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