365NEWSX
365NEWSX
Subscribe

Welcome

UK imposes sanctions against human rights abusers - BBC News

UK imposes sanctions against human rights abusers - BBC News

UK imposes sanctions against human rights abusers - BBC News
Jul 06, 2020 1 min, 20 secs

The UK is imposing sanctions on 49 people and organisations behind the most "notorious" human rights abuses of recent years.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the move sent a "clear message".

The UK's new sanctions' regime is significant.

The government wants the UK to be seen as a leading defender of international rules and human rights.

What is also unclear is how effective they will be in actually deterring human rights abuses.

Asked about if it could damage the UK's trading relationship with Saudi Arabia, the foreign secretary said it was "a matter of moral duty", adding: "We can't turn a blind eye to gross violations of human rights.

Many MPs have long been pushing for a tougher domestic sanctions regime against foreign states accused of human rights abuses, based on the 2013 US Magnitsky Act.

Mr Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was killed by a team of Saudi agents in what the Saudi authorities described as a "rogue operation" that went wrong

In December 2019, a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death and jailed three others but the process was condemned by foreign governments and the UN, which said it represented "the antithesis of justice"

Labour, which has been critical of the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia, particularly in relation to the war in Yemen, said it welcomed action against those responsible for the "appalling" murder

The Foreign Office said its new sanctions regime, underpinned by legislation passed in 2018, could be extended in future to encompass individuals and governments guilty of corruption

The government has said it will maintain these after that date and also existing UN sanctions

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED