US, UK, Canada Issue Coordinated Human Rights Sanctions

The U.S., the U.K. and Canada last week issued a range of new sanctions to mark the internationally recognized Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, designating people across more than 10 jurisdictions for their ties to human rights violations. They include U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials with ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including one designated under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.

The U.S. Treasury and State departments sanctioned more than 20 people, including Taliban members in Afghanistan, military officials in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo and criminal gang leaders in Haiti. The U.S. also sanctioned two Iranian intelligence officers, a mayor in Liberia and South Sudanese and Ugandan officials.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Chinese government officials, including Gao Qi, who was designated under the UHRPA. OFAC said both Gao and Hu Lianhe have ties to human rights abuses against minority groups in China’s Xinjiang region.

Lawmakers and a congressional commission have urged the Biden administration to sanction more Chinese officials under the act (see 2309200009 and 2204010039), and two Republicans last week said the designation of Gao wasn't enough.

"While we welcome this news, the Biden Administration has dragged its feet to implement sanctions under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act for far too long," said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the chair of the House Select Committee on China. They said Ma Xingrui, China's "boss" in Xinjiang, is "alarmingly absent" from the new designations.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "must explain why the top [Chinese Communist Party] official in Xinjiang -- who implements Xi Jinping’s genocide --does not meet the criteria for U.S. sanctions," they said. "If the administration refuses to hold the major perpetrators of the Uyghur genocide accountable, Congress will take the lead on human rights where the administration has thrown in the towel." A State Department spokesperson didn't comment.

OFAC also issued a new frequently asked question clarifying that sanctions on the leader of a government institution doesn’t necessarily mean the government institution is also blocked. OFAC specifically said this applies to “any designated individual in Afghanistan who has a leadership role in a governing institution in Afghanistan,” referring to its new designations of Fariduddin Mahmood, a member of the Taliban’s cabinet, and Khalid Hanafi, who serves as the Taliban’s minister of the “Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

For example, OFAC said companies can make a customs payment to a governing body in Afghanistan, even if the leader of that body is sanctioned. “However, engaging directly or indirectly with that blocked individual, such as receiving an invoice bearing the blocked individual’s signature for a commercial transaction, would be prohibited” unless specifically authorized by OFAC, the agency said.

Along with the U.S., the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added a host of entries to its Belarus, Global Human Rights, Syria and Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regimes on Dec. 8. The country added 17 people to its Belarus sanctions, including various government officials; 11 people and five entities under its Global Human Rights regime, including in China, Haiti and Southeast Asia; eight people to its Syria sanctions regime, including military and government officials; and five names to its Iran sanctions regime, also military and government officials.

Canada sanctioned seven people it said have ties to human rights, including four Russian nationals with ties to the “LGBTQI+ purge” in Chechnya, two Iranian nationals responsible for the “torture and killing” of Iranian-Canadian photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi in 2003, and the leader of the Myanmar military’s overthrow of the country’s government in 2021. Canada said these people are “directly responsible for a list of crimes that include extrajudicial killings, torture and other gross violations of human rights against activists and defenders who dared to stand up for their rights.”