Australia expanded its sanctions laws this week to create a Magnitsky-style regime that will allow it to more easily target human rights abusers, corruption and “malicious” cyber activities, the foreign affairs ministry said. The new rules, which were passed by the country’s parliament Dec. 2 and have been under review for at least two years (see 1912050026), will ensure Australia can “take timely action” with its allies “to impose costs on, influence, and deter those responsible for egregious situations of international concern,” the ministry said. The country will also be able to establish “further thematic sanctions regulations in the future,” the ministry added, including “in relation to serious violations of international humanitarian law.” The U.S. first passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012 and has since lobbied for allies to adopt similar sanctions authorities. The European Parliament, the United Kingdom, Germany and others have taken steps to adopt Magitsky-style sanctions (see 2106180009, 2009100015 and 2007060025).
The Biden administration plans to work closer with trading partners to tighten export controls around surveillance tools and other technologies used by authoritarian governments for human rights abuses, according to a Dec. 2 report in The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. hopes to work with a number of countries to establish a “code of conduct” on export licensing policies for surveillance goods, administration officials said this week, and will encourage information sharing on sensitive technologies that are used against political dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.
The Commerce and State departments completed interagency reviews of final rules that would revise export controls for goods destined to Cambodia. Commerce’s rule would revise certain restrictions for Cambodia under the Export Administration Regulations, while the State Department would add Cambodia to its list of proscribed countries in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Both agencies sent their respective rules for interagency review Nov. 16 (see 2111170014) and completed them Dec. 1.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned an additional 20 people, 12 entities and three aircraft for aiding the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus. The agency also imposed new restrictions on dealings in Belarusian sovereign debt, and issued a new general license and 10 new frequently asked questions to provide guidance on the new sanctions.
Michael Parker, a former official at both the Justice and the Treasury departments, has joined Ferrari & Associates as counsel heading up the firm's money laundering and sanctions practice, the firm announced Dec. 1. Parker was previously a sanctions investigator and later a chief in the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s enforcement division before joining DOJ, where he prosecuted transnational crime and money laundering violations.
Switzerland has sanctioned four Syrian government ministers who were appointed in August, following the European Union's lead, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a Nov. 25 notice. The four are Amr Salem, internal trade and consumer protection; Boutros Al-Hallaq, information; Mohammad Seifeddine, labor and social affairs; and Diala Barakat, state. Switzerland on Nov. 11 delisted former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi. The EU also delisted Al-Mahmoudi in November (see 2111120009).
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Nov. 30 to clarify U.S. sanctions policy on Iranian efforts to acquire unmanned drones. The Stop Iranian Drones Act would clarify that sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act apply to the “supply, sale or transfer to or from Iran of unmanned combat aerial vehicles.” The legislation also states that it is the policy of the U.S. to “prevent Iran and Iranian-aligned groups from acquiring unmanned aerial vehicles” that may be used in attacks against the U.S. or its allies. “With this bill, we are ensuring the world knows that the U.S. will use every tool to cut off Iran’s UAV supplies and to punish those who continue to supply Iran with UAVs and parts despite their destructive impact,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who introduced the bill alongside Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Joe Wilson, R-S.C.; and Ted Deutch, D-Fla.
While the U.S. and the European Union should continue to collaborate on export controls and investment screening efforts, cooperation on financial sanctions may be more difficult and may not be feasible in some cases, panelists said. Any trade or investment restrictions that rely on financial market leverage will be more difficult for the EU to implement, they said.
The U.S. and the European Union should pursue multilateral export controls, reexamine restrictions on certain munitions-related items and work together to better harmonize decisions on license denials, industry and academia said. The U.S. and EU released a joint summary Dec. 1 of those recommendations, which were made during an Oct. 27 virtual meeting on dual-use export controls (see 2110190020) to discuss areas of priority for the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council.
The United Kingdom's High Court of Justice dismissed a challenge from Egyptian national and sanctioned individual Hany Youssef over whether the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act complies with Articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to a Nov. 26 judgment. Articles 6 and 8 guarantee the right of access to a court and protect the right to private and family life, respectively. Youssef was sanctioned by the United Nations Al-Qaida and Taliban Financial Sanctions Committee in 2005. Following the passage of SAMLA in 2018, the Egyptian national sought to have his UN sanctions listing removed via the U.K. government, eventually arguing that the U.K. judicial system's inability to order the U.K. government to quash a UN sanctions listing is in violation of the ECHR.