The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime and Practice

The present work assesses and analyzes the so-called Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (GHRSR), which has been adopted by the European Union (EU) on 7 December 2020, following a proposal of the Dutch Government in 2018, and in line with a few similar regimes already in force in other jurisdictions, such as the 2012 US Global Magnitsky Act. Composed by EU Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/1999 and Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998, the GHRSR established a comprehensive sanctions regime allowing the EU to impose targeted restrictive measures on natural and legal persons accountable for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations. Representing the EU’s third fully autonomous horizontal and thematic sanctions regime, the GHRSR enjoys extraterritorial applicability, as its aim is precisely to allow the EU to address human rights violations globally, regardless of aspects such as the perpetrators’ nationality or place of establishment or the place where the violation occurs. As of April 2023, sanctions have been imposed upon thirty-five individuals and fifteen entities. Nonetheless, having been in place for less than three years, the GHRSR is still unripe. In fact, despite its evident potential, the instrument has been the subject of much criticism, especially in the light of existing lacunae concerning its nature, objective, application and limits. One of the aspects that has been most commonly pointed out as a possible cause of a certain reduction in the legitimacy of the instrument is the peril that, while aiming and claiming to contribute to the protection of human rights, the GHRSR may itself end up infringing them, more or less systematically, as shown in particular by the well-known issue related to the inclusion (and deletion) of natural and legal persons from the lists of sanctioned persons. This and other issues that were somehow left unresolved by the legislator in the drafting process, and that may reduce (or jeopardize) the instrument’s effectiveness. need to be addressed shortly. A contribution to the legitimacy of the GHRSR has been and will be given by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which - despite the limitations of its powers in the field of the Common Foreign and Security Policy - had already the occasion to deal with some of the most problematic issues.