Posts Tagged ‘deutsche well’
US disappoints with Russia sanctions
Russian politicians have rejected the US sanctions against Russian officials. But human rights activists say the penalties for alleged human rights violations don’t go far enough.
The foreign committee of the Russian Parliament has warned that the “fresh start” in Russian-American relations, launched by US President Barack Obama, has now been “buried.” The Foreign Ministry in Moscow has also heavily criticized the Magnitsky list released by the US Treasury on Friday (12.04.2013). The blacklist of Russian officials allegedly responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was, they said, an “interference in domestic affairs.”
Following Friday’s release of the list, 18 Russian officials now face penalties for alleged human rights violations, as American authorities can freeze their bank accounts and ban the officials from entering the US. In return, Russia has imposed an entrance ban on 18 US citizens who are alleged to have participated in torture practices in Guantanamo prison, or who are said to have violated the rights of Russian citizens.
The Magnitsky Act was passed by Obama last December and was created following the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who was allegedly beaten to death in a Moscow prison in 2009. Magnitsky worked in Russia for an American law firm and was a consultant for Western investment fund Hermitage Capital. He was arrested and charged with alleged tax fraud after he shed light on a corruption scandal involving state authorities.
Breakthrough in international law
Sergei Lukashevsky is the director of the Andrei Sakharov Center in Moscow and believes that the Magnitsky Act is a breakthrough in international law. “In my view it confirms the principle that human rights must be protected regardless of state borders,” he told DW in an interview.
Lukashevsky hopes that more laws like the Magnitsky Act will be introduced, and stressed that Russia isn’t the only country failing to appropriately protect human rights. The general idea behind the Magnitsky Act must not be discredited, he added.
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Do EU sanctions work?
The European Union has increased its use of sanctions against “outlaw countries” in the last few years. But one analyst argues that it has failed to police them – as a result, the efficacy of sanctions remains unclear.
For an international power often dismissed as too soft, the European Union is becoming increasingly fond of using sanctions to coerce other countries to its will. But a new paper by Konstanty Gebert, of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), accuses the EU of a “wilful blindness” in the way that sanctions are imposed, which has led to inconsistent successes and protracted deadlocks.
As of June 2012, the EU had sanctions in place against 26 countries around the world. And there has been a sharp increase in the last three years – from 22 decisions in 2010 to 69 a year later. Most of these have been focused on “outlaw” countries like Syria and Iran, but the EU has also shown that it is more willing to spread these diplomatic and economic weapons around – imposing them on 16 different nations in 2002, but to 28 in 2011.
The term “sanctions” can of course refer to a range of measures, some political, others economic. Some aimed at governments, others at individuals within those governments, and others still at private individuals. Often it comes down to freezing financial assets, or blocking trade in certain industries.
And the aim of sanctions can be equally wide-ranging – they can either be punishment for severe human rights violations or democratic backsliding, or deterrents to prevent countries from carrying out actions that could threaten European security.
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