On December 7, 2020, The Council of the European Union adopted a global human rights sanctions regime, similar to the Magnitsky Sanctions program used by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The EU’s framework will permit it to target individuals, entities, and bodies, whether state or non-state actors, and those who provide technical, financial, or material support to those who are “responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, no matter where they occurred.” This includes the imposition of targeted sanctions for acts such as genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations or abuses (e.g., torture, slavery, arbitrary executions, arbitrary detentions, etc.), and other widespread, systemic and serious human rights violations (e.g. human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violations, violations or abuses of freedom of assembly, association, speech, religion).

The program will permit member states or the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to propose any sanctions under the program, which will then be acted upon by the Council of the EU. The Council may then impose restrictive measures such as travel bans, freezing of funds, and forbidding persons and entities in the EU from making funds available, directly or indirectly, to those designated. This program greatly expands the scope of the EU’s sanctions program which was historically more targeted and geographically-based. The new program provides the EU with the authority to impose sanctions on individuals and entities, regardless of their location, that are accused of human rights abuses. The program entered into force on December 8, 2020, but sanctions have yet to be imposed under the new program.

The program comes only months behind the first sanctions imposed under a similar program in the United Kingdom and after continued additions to both the UK and OFAC’s Magnitsky program. In particular, on December 9, in commemoration of International Anti-Corruption Day, OFAC designated additional individuals in Liberia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and China for being current or former government officials responsible for corruption. On December 10, International Human Rights Day, both OFAC and the UK designated additional entities and individuals worldwide for their roles in serious human rights abuses. It remains to be seen whether the new EU program will soon join the U.S. and the UK in proactively making use of its new sanctions regime.

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Photo of Dj Wolff Dj Wolff

David (Dj) Wolff is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a director with C&M International, the firm’s trade policy affiliate.

At Crowell & Moring, he serves on the steering committee for the International Trade Group, where his practice focuses

David (Dj) Wolff is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a director with C&M International, the firm’s trade policy affiliate.

At Crowell & Moring, he serves on the steering committee for the International Trade Group, where his practice focuses on all aspects of compliance with U.S. economic sanctions, including day-to-day compliance guidance, developing compliance programs, responding to government inquiries, conducting internal investigations, and representation during civil and criminal enforcement proceedings. Dj works regularly with non-U.S. clients, both in Europe and Asia, to evaluate the jurisdictional reach of U.S. sanction authorities to their global operations, identify and manage the potential conflict of laws that can result from that reach, as well as to support client’s design, implementation, and evaluation of a corresponding risk-based sanctions compliance program. Dj also regularly leads teams in diligence efforts on trade and related regulatory areas on behalf of his U.S. and non-U.S. clients in the M&A arena, having successfully closed more than 30 deals with an aggregate valuation of several billion dollars over the last 18 months.

Dj is ranked by Chambers USA in International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions. He has previously been recognized by Law360 as a Rising Star in International Trade (2020), by The National Law Journal as a “DC Rising Star” (2019), by Who’s Who Legal: Investigations as a “Future Leader” (2018 and 2019), Acritas Star as an Acritas Stars Independently Rated Lawyers (2019), by Global Investigations Review as one of the “40 under 40” in Investigations internationally (2017), and WorldECR as one of the five finalists for the WorldECR Young Practitioner of the Year award (2016).