Il Global Magntisky Act: una nuova frontiera nella battaglia per i diritti umani?

ABSTRACT This work will introduce the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who gives the name to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act dated 2016. This Act is the result of a strenuous work, started after the killing in a Russian jail of the Russian lawyer who discovered a case of corruption and tax fraud in Russia, and before his death went through several violations of his fundamental human rights. The first chapter gives a summary of the events that brought first to the birth of the U. S. Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, in 2012, that was meant to prosecute the Russian oligarchs, police officers, and public servants involved in Sergei Magnitsky case, by freezing their assets abroad (which were the results of the money they got through their corruption activities) and by putting visa bans for entering the U.S. The further development of this act is the Global Magnitsky Rule of Accountability Act (2016) that was extended all other countries were corrupted criminals in power took advantage from their positions at the expenses of the normal people of their country. The second chapter is a description about the connection between criminal law and human rights and how these two specific and apparently paradoxical topics are strictly intertwined and can successfully work to fight injustice and corruption all over the world. The idea is to explain how human rights have this double function and how it is common to see around the world that when corruption is in place, human rights are always at risk. But also, it’s important to remember that the rule of law has to be respected and that the fundamental human rights have to be granted in the process of getting justice. The third chapter starts illustrating the concept of sanctions to focus then on the more indicated use of the “targeted sanctions” that are meant to go against the single individuals responsible for corruption and not against the whole country, with heavy implications for the innocent part of the population. Furthermore, in this analysis it is also considered the fact that even these specific kind of sanctions have to be used in a proper manner to avoid possible violations of human rights. There are also some references to the concept of “universal jurisdiction” because of the international interconnections that the corruption present all over the world implies. The last chapter is dedicated to the implementation of the Global Magnitsky Rule of Accountability Act how it has been implemented in other countries in addition to the U.S. and how it has been working up to these days. It considers the difficulties it (still) has to be adopted and mentions also some opinions that don’t recognize its efficacy, but still tries to underline the fact that it is a tool that has its flaws, but the common work of scholars and jurists at international level can still work on it to increase its efficacy. This work would like to provide a starting point for further studies about the possible improvements to make this tool more and more accurate and efficient in the fight against impunity of corruption and violations of fundamental human rights all over the world.