Debate: EU global human rights sanctions regime
Date: TUESDAY, 6 JULY 2021
Speaker: Anže Logar
Language: EN

About those that should fall under this type of sanction regime: there are unfortunately many across the world who could be listed under this regime. The first listings were not meant to be exhaustive and the regime will continue to be used in the coming years.  There was an intervention regarding incompleteness of the regime that the EU installed in the process. Well, this sanction regime was designed to address serious human rights violations and abuses, and that is exactly what it is focusing on. It covers genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and slavery, among others.  At the same time, and at the time of the establishment of the regime, Member States opted not to include corruption as one of the listing criteria. However, the framework of the regime also allows the economic enablers of human rights violations or persons or entities benefiting from such violations to be listed. With this sanctions regime, we make it clear that there are serious consequences to those violations and abuses. And the EU does not turn a blind eye. And it is for the Council to decide by unanimity if any additional criterion should be added or not.  There were also as well many interventions regarding unanimity. As you know, the modalities and scope of the new sanctions regime have to be agreed between Member States by unanimity, including the provision on voting for the adoption of new listings.  When the High Representative submitted to the Council the draft legal act for the establishment of the new sanctions regime, he systematically proposed to use qualified majority voting for the adoption of new listing. The EU global human rights sanctions regime was no exception. However, the Member States decided that unanimity was required for any listings. Under most of the EU sanctions regime, new listings are adopted by unanimity and not qualified majority voting. This standard practice is that Member States reach consensus even in the few cases where qualified majority voting is possible. However, the High Representative continues to believe that the greater use of qualified majority voting in the area of foreign and security policy could bring considerable benefit, to make decisions faster and more efficient. And the High Representative will continue to discuss this issue with Member States.  As you know, the High Representative made two proposals regarding the regime and both proposals were adopted in the Council. That proves it works and that we succeeded to translate political commitment into actions.  There was a question on how to cooperate with other third states, so like-minded countries such as the US, UK, Canada have an ongoing interest to work together to combine with the EU to maximise the impact of respective human rights sanction regimes. This is an interest that we share and we maintain an open dialogue with them. And with other sanction regimes: 14 countries are systematically invited to align with our sanction decisions. This includes EU candidate countries and countries from the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area. It is the regime that has been in force for the last six months, while the Magnitsky Act has been in power since 2012.  About the scope: the regime covers serious human rights violations and abuses. More concretely, acts covered by the EU global human rights sanction regime are genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, slavery, extrajudicial summary or arbitrary execution and killings, enforced disappearance of persons, arbitrary arrests or detentions.  It also covers other acts including, but not limited to, the following, insofar as these violations or abuses are widespread, systematic or are otherwise of serious concern as regards the objectives of the common foreign and security policy set out in Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union, mainly trafficking in human beings as well as abuses of human rights by migrant smugglers, and referred to in Article 1 of the Council Decision. And sexual and gender-based violence, then violation or abuses of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and violation or abuses of freedom of opinion and expression, violations or abuses of freedom of religion or belief.  And how do we see the role of the European Parliament? As I said already in the introductory remarks, we would like to acknowledge the important role that the European Parliament has played in the establishment of the EU global human rights regime. Your longstanding support across political groups significantly contributed to create the necessary momentum. And we are committed to continuing our exchange with the European Parliament on this regime.  In line with the existing treaty provisions, the Council decides on the modalities and scope of any sanctions regime and on any listing proposal put forward by the Member State or / and the High Representative. Of course, the High Representative will surely consider the work of the European Parliament in this field and especially its proposals.  The EU global human rights sanctions regime was a missing link in our EU human rights toolbox. We now have a powerful tool at our disposal which we can use to complement our action at bilateral and multilateral level. We continue monitoring closely serious human rights violations and abuses around the world, and we will not shy away from taking further decisive action in the near future.