On 22 March 2021, the EU imposed restrictive measures on eleven individuals and four entities in relation to alleged human rights violations, including:

  • four individuals and one company with links to the large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang;
  • two individuals and one company in the DPRK, responsible for implementing repressive security policies and other human rights violations;
  • two officials in Libya and the armed Libyan militia, responsible for serious human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings;
  • two Russian individuals involved in violations of LGBTI rights in Chechnya;
  • the Major General of the South Sudan‘s People’s Defence Forces, in response to his role in the abduction and execution of three officers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition, and the clashes in response; and
  • the National Security Office of the Government of Eritrea, responsible for serious human rights violations in Eritrea including arbitrary arrests, killings, enforced disappearances and torture.

These measures were announced under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. See European Council press release here.

Author

Adeel Haque is an Associate in Baker McKenzie's London office. He is a member of the International Commercial & Trade and Antitrust & Competition practice groups. Adeel qualified in September 2019 and has spent time working in the Firm's Hong Kong office.