The European Commission proposes a sanctioning regulation against the violation of human rights

 

What do you want to do ?

New mail

The proposal of the European Commission, for the creation of a black-list of the Union in order to sanction natural or legal persons who have perpetrated the violation of human rights, marks a new chapter in the attitude of the European institutions in the face of non-compliance rights. From a regulatory point of view, the draft concerning the regulation to be adopted takes its cue from a law already approved by the USA in 2012, during the Obama presidency. The sanctioning measures may be adopted against individuals and companies regardless of their country of origin, therefore also belonging to nations that have normal diplomatic relations with the Union. Although it is already a subject of negotiation, the situation linked to the poisoning of the Russian opponent, Navalni, has put the subject at the center of the European debate. The measure that represents the greatest novelty within the regulation will be the prohibition at European level and, therefore, no longer at the state level, of the sanctioned person entering the EU territory. Naturally, the sanction options will also concern the possibility of intervening on the assets and assets, present in the EU, of subjects who have infringed respect for human rights. The regulation should be able to guarantee greater flexibility in prosecuting those responsible for violating human rights, a category of offenses that is not included at individual level in the lists present within the community bodies, which currently provide for black-lists for crimes of terrorism, use of chemical weapons and computer crimes. The ban on entry into the EU represents a new sanctioning instrument, which is added to the immobilization of assets, until now the only possibility to intervene against violations. The approval of the regulation against human rights violations must reach the unanimity of the Council of the Union and this will represent tangible proof of the will of all European countries to defend civil rights and therefore the founding principles of the Union itself. This will be an indisputable indication of the real will of the European states and, especially, of some specific nations, which within them are not fully guaranteeing political and civil rights. The vote of the individual states must be a matter to be carefully examined and the final result will tell which direction Europe wants to take. The approval does not seem obvious, both for political reasons, relating, in fact, to the attitude of some countries, and for reasons of expediency regarding the economic interests that may be affected and the related responses to European companies, subject to retaliation. The topic should, however, affect a broader spectrum, just beyond people and companies but include states guilty of human rights violations. If the adoption of the sanctioning regulation becomes a reality, only the first stage in the fight against the failure to respect human rights will have been covered, the battle of civilization to be fully effective should involve waging a fight against state regimes guilty of non-compliance with human rights. This side, at the moment, appears to be only an ambition that is difficult to pursue, precisely for diplomatic and economic reasons; however, the danger of not compromising on respect for rights puts Europe at the concrete risk of being able to suffer a similar fate; for the moment in the majority of European countries the rights are guaranteed, but the very presence of states within the Union where guarantees have decreased, is a warning, which must be kept in mind. Furthermore, the economic ties with states that are political regimes, certainly China, but also others, presuppose ever closer contacts, which envisage forms of presence on the European territory of representatives of these nations. If the solution cannot be autarchy, demanding greater respect for rights as a contractual basis could begin to be an effective means of obliging some regimes, at least to a different attitude on this issue. However, it is necessary to start from the home front: the permanence within the Union of countries that have governments that have the compression of rights in their political program must become a primary question and with a solution that can no longer be postponed because tolerance lasted for too much time.