The EU’s sanctions against human rights violations happening worldwide.

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In December 2020, the Council of the European Union adopted “a decision and a regulation establishing a global human rights sanctions regime”. This innovative framework allowed the EU to target individuals, entities, and bodies, whether as State actors or non-State actors, “responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, no matter where they occurred”.

The acts for which this framework was designed are those that perpetrate serious human rights violations and abuse worldwide, such as “genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations or abuses”. 

The scope is to adopt restrictive measures against individuals or groups identified as responsible; indeed, travel bans can be applied to individuals, or freezing of funds can be applied to both individuals and groups. 

This decision was declared to be in line with the protection and promotion of human rights as a priority of the EU external action, reflecting “the EU’s determination to address serious human rights violations and abuses”. 

There are currently 135 individuals and 37 entities that have been sanctioned since the establishment of this framework, belonging to various countries around the world: individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations and abuses worldwide, including in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Myanmar/Burma, North Korea, Russia and South Sudan; individuals and entities linked to the Wagner Group, in view of the international dimension and gravity of the group’s activities; Russian individuals and entities linked to Alexei Navalny’s death and to human rights abuses in Crimea and other occupied territories of Ukraine; extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians; violent Israeli activists blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza; Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in response to the widespread sexual and gender-based violence committed during the terrorist attacks of October 2023; individuals and entities associated with the al-Assad regime and involved in human rights abuses against the Syrian population.

Due to the human rights violations being widely spread in certain countries, the EU decided to impose several sets of sanctions on those responsible in the given countries, like Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia. 

In December 2025, the ongoing sanctions were prolonged until 8 December 2026. In this specific context, the sanctions are understood as an instrument to promote “peace, democracy, respect for the rule of law, human rights and international law”. They are a fundamental pillar of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, and they are seen as a response to global challenges. However, these sanctions do not target countries or populations, since they are not punitive but “seek to bring about a change in the policy or conduct of those targeted”.

written by Alice Scotti