Washington – Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today released the following statement on the European Union’s adoption of a human rights sanctions framework modeled after the Magnitsky Act:

“I am pleased that the European Union has joined the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other like-minded democracies in adopting a comprehensive framework for sanctioning human rights abusers. With this announcement, the broader transatlantic alliance sends a unified message that it will not tolerate and will harshly punish the world’s most despicable human rights violators.

“Together, the United States, Canada, and Europe can continue to be a force for safeguarding human rights around the world by coordinating our efforts closely and denying abusers access to our shores, our markets, and our economic institutions. With heinous abuses occurring every day in Belarus, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Venezuela, Yemen, Uganda, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, we must act swiftly to hold the perpetrators to account. I strongly encourage the EU to make its first designations as soon as possible to send a strong message that for Europe, like the United States, human rights are a sacred priority.”

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