On Wednesday (24) at 12:30 p.m. EST, the Tom Lantos (D-MA) Human Rights Committee will hold a hearing to review the implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. This will be broadcast live by New Tang Dynasty and Epoch Times (with simultaneous Chinese translation).
Today, the U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos (D-MT) Human Rights Committee held a hearing with multiple witnesses to review the implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
In recent years, the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate, with Hong Kong democrats, Xinjiang Uighurs, Tibetans, and Mongolians, as well as religious groups such as Christians and Falun Gong, being severely persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party, and international condemnation and sanctions have been issued.
The Trump administration has repeatedly used this law to sanction human rights violators by banning them from entering the country and handing over their U.S. assets to the federal government. For example, on September 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (GMDHA), which imposes sanctions on the Tianjin United Development Group (UDG), a state-owned entity of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Magnitsky Act, which originated in the United States in 2012 with cross-party support, was initially intended to punish Putin regime officials for the deaths of Russian tax advisor Sergei Magnitsky and others in Moscow jails.
The bill has had a significant impact around the world, with similar laws enacted in recent years in Canada, Australia, the European Union, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania and other countries.
Last November, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell said a global sanctions regime was needed to crack down on criminals, make them inadmissible to the EU and any other country, and freeze their personal assets in other countries.
On March 14, 2019, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the EU hierarchy, as well as each of the 28 member states, to enact a sanctions mechanism similar to the U.S. Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to precisely sanction politicians of foreign regimes that persecute human rights.
The Dutch Parliament, for its part, preceded the EU in passing a requirement that the Dutch government must implement its Dutch version of the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act by January 31, 2020. Sanctioned individuals will be banned from entering the Netherlands in the future and have their assets frozen.
On December 4, 2019, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne asked the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade to conduct a study to see if a bill similar to the U.S. Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act should be introduced.
On July 6, 2020, the United Kingdom announced for the first Time sanctions against 49 individuals and groups from countries including Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Burma.
In November 2020, the Japan Parliamentarians’ Alliance on China Policy (JPAC), a cross-party group of members of the Diet, including members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), called for the Diet to enact a Japanese version of the Magnitsky Act as soon as possible to sanction human rights violations involving Hong Kong and Uighur atrocities. Chinese and Hong Kong officials.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, formerly known as the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, is an independent commission established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1983 and founded by prominent human rights advocates, California Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, and Rep. John Porter, Republican of Illinois.
Recent Comments