2024 Magnitsky Series

Human Rights First and our partners in the targeted human rights and anti-corruption sanctions coalition lead “Magnitsky Month” to advocate for the expanded and improved multilateral use of Magnitsky-style sanctions in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia. Register here for the 2024 Magnitsky Month events:

Mobilizing Action for Political Prisoners: Using Magnitsky Sanctions and Other Tools to Seek Their Release

Wednesday, November 13, 10:00am EST

Authoritarian regimes around the world regularly use arbitrary detention as a tool of repression to silence dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, and other perceived government critics and detain U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents as bargaining chips. Advocacy for their release often involves coalition building and engagement with multiple governments and legal mechanisms — from targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the U.S. Levinson Act, and other domestic, regional, and international tools.

This virtual panel of experts and individuals impacted by arbitrary detention will discuss how civil society can mobilize collective global action to counter these authoritarian tactics and advocate for the release of political prisoners and others arbitrarily detained around thew world.

Moderator:

• Adam Keith, Senior Director for Accountability at Human Rights First

Panelists:

• Evgenia Kara-Murza, International Advocacy Director at the Free Russia Foundation and spouse and advocate for the release of her husband, Vladimir Kara Murza, a Russian dissident and former political prisoner who was arbitrarily detained in Russia for more than 2 years
• Angelita Baeyens, Vice President of International Advocacy and Litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
• Richard Ratcliffe, spouse and advocate for the release of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker who was arbitrarily detained in Iran for six years

New Precedents, Persistent Gaps, and What’s Next: Looking Back at Global Magnitsky Sanctions under the Biden Administration and What to Expect from the New Administration 

Thursday, November 21, 10:00am EST

Over the past four years, the Biden administration has established a mixed record on its use of Global Magnitsky sanctions, making important advancements in how such tools are used to respond to different types of abuses and cases, while leaving behind ongoing gaps that civil society has long called on the administration to address. With the U.S. elections on November 5, the priorities of the next administration could dramatically reshape how, where, and why Global Magnitsky sanctions are used — or not — with ramifications for efforts to multilateralize such sanctions and hold perpetrators of human rights abuses and corruption accountable.

This virtual panel discussion will bring together activists for a conversation to reflect on what the Biden administration achieved and where it fell short over the past four years of Magnitsky sanctions, and to identify the potentially significant changes in human rights and anti-corruption sanctions that the next administration might pursue.

Moderator:

• Amanda Strayer, Senior Counsel for Accountability at Human Rights First

Panelists:

• Brad Brooks-Rubin, a partner at Arktouros, a boutique law firm specializing in sanctions, anti-money laundering, and regulatory advice, and formerly a Senior Advisor in the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State
• Chloe Zoeller, Senior Program Manager at the Pan American Development Foundation
• Natalia Kubesch, Legal Officer at REDRESS focusing on the use of Magnitsky sanctions to provide accountability for serious human rights violations.

Justice Without Borders: Leveraging Magnitsky Sanctions to Combat Transnational Repression

Tuesday, November 26, 10:00am EST

Hosted by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and co-sponsored by Human Rights First, Open Society Foundations, Pan American Development Foundation, and REDRESS

Transnational repression has become a common and systematic practice used by authoritarian governments to control diaspora and exile communities beyond their borders in order to silence or curtail dissent. Individuals who publicly criticize and counter regime narratives are frequently targeted, including journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents, and civil society activists.

This online panel will explore the nexus between transnational repression and targeted sanctions as a mechanism for accountability and deterrence. The panel will discuss the use of extraterritorial repression by Iran, Russia, and China, its impact, and the role that targeted sanctions can play in countering these threats.

Moderator:

• Sir William Browder, CEO Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and author of Red Notice and Freezing Order

Remarks by The Honorable Professor Irwin Cotler, Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Panelists:

• Ti-Anna Wang, Human rights advocate and lawyer
• Evgenia Kara-Murza, International Advocacy Director of the Free Russia Foundation
• Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, Human and democratic rights activist, author, public speaker, and founding member of the Iranian Justice Collective

Please register here for this event hosted by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

2024 Magnitsky Month Publication 

Sanctioning Human Trafficking Under the Global Magnitsky Program (Nov. 13, 2024)

In September, the U.S. government announced a set of sanctions against Cambodian tycoon and ruling-party senator Ly Yong Phat, along with several related companies, for their role in subjecting trafficked workers to forced labor in online scam centers. This was only the third time the U.S. government has used the Global Magnitsky program to respond to human trafficking, and it continued the trend of using this program for trafficking cases that involve physical abuse.

As part of Magnitsky Month, Human Rights First attorneys Nina Moraitou-Politzi, Amanda Strayer, and Suchita Uppal published a piece in Just Security arguing that Magnitsky sanctions should be used to address all forms of human trafficking, including cases where no physical abuse is present. From using digital technologies to exploit sex trafficking victims to governments coercing labor by threatening to withhold public benefits, trafficking without physical abuse is prevalent. This too, should be a focus of the U.S. government when imposing targeted sanctions to combat human trafficking. Read the op-ed here to learn more.