Sanctions against human rights violations

Global human rights sanctions regime

In December 2020, the Council established a human rights sanctions framework that applies globally, meaning that the EU can target individuals, entities and bodies – including state and non-state actors – responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, no matter where they occur.

The framework applies for example to:

• genocide
• crimes against humanity
• torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
• slavery
• extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings
• enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests or detentions

Other human rights violations and abuses may also fall within the scope of this sanctions framework if they are widespread, systematic or otherwise of serious concern as regards the objectives of the EU's common foreign and security policy.

These include trafficking in human beings, abuse of human rights by migrant smugglers, sexual violence and gender-based violence and violation or abuse of the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, opinion and expression, and religion or belief

The sanctions consist of travel bans for individuals, asset freezes for individuals and entities, and a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to those listed.

Derogations from the sanctions are possible, including for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Currently 151 individuals and 45 entities are sanctioned under this regime.

The sanctions were last extended until 8 December 2026.

Sanctions within this framework target, for example:

• 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 the occupied territories of Ukraine, including torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Ukrainian prisoners
• 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 
• individuals and entities linked to scam centres in Southeast Asia

• Sanctions against serious human rights violations and abuses (EU official journal)

Sanctions over human rights abuses in specific countries

The EU has also imposed several sets of sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in specific countries, for example in:

• Belarus
• Iran
• Myanmar
• Russia
• Sudan
• Syria
• Venezuela

See also