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1 1 (June 15, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/govzdu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Conresoa Reeac Sevc 0 Updated June 15, 2018 The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, enacted at the close of the 114th Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (NDAA 2017; P.L. 114-328; enacted December 23, 2016), authorizes the President to impose economic sanctions and deny entry into the United States to any foreign person he identifies as engaging in human rights abuse or corruption. Versions of the act had circulated in Congress since 2014. Who Was Magnitsky? Sergei Magnitsky's death in Russia came to the attention of Congress in early 2008 when the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe invited William Browder, Chief Executive Officer of Hermitage Capital, to testify on the economic, social, and political climate in Russia under newly elected President Dmitri Medvedev. (Putin reassumed the presidency in 2012.) Browder recounted the violent expropriation of the assets of Hermitage-once the largest foreign investment brokerage in Russia-by rampant Russian government corruption, bribery, fraud, forgery, cronyism, and outright theft. Magnitsky, a legal and accounting adviser, documented Hermitage's losses and other illicit financial dealings, including the draining of $230 million from the Russian treasury by tax fraud. Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008, reportedly for tax evasion, and denied medical care, family visits, or due legal process while in custody, as well as beaten and possibly tortured. He died in prison in November 2009, at the age of 37. Congress enacted the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (title IV of P.L. 112-208; 22 U.S.C. 5811 note) to require the President to identify the person(s) involved in the detention, abuse, or death of Magnitsky, and the ensuing cover-up, or responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Designated individuals are subject to sanctions-blocking of assets under U.S. jurisdiction, prohibited from U.S. transactions, and denied entry into the United States. To date, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 49 Russians who are subject to Magnitsky sanctions. OFAC also published regulations to define the responsibilities of persons under U.S. jurisdiction who might consider engaging with the Magnitsky designees (31 C.F.R. Part 584). Going Global Congress took the terms of the Russia-focused Magnitsky Act to the global stage with the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (P.L. 114-328, subtitle F, title XII; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note). The act authorizes the President to deny entry into the United States, revoke a visa, block property under U.S. jurisdiction of, and prohibit U.S. persons from entering into transactions with, any foreign person he identifies as: * responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights (or an agent of such a foreign person) and targeting those working (1) to expose illegal activities of government officials; and (2) to defend or exercise human rights and freedoms, including rights to a fair trial and democratic elections; or * a foreign government official, senior associate or facilitator of such an official, responsible for acts of significant corruption, including the expropriation of private or public assets for personal gain, corruption in government contracts or natural resource extraction, bribery, or the offshore sheltering of ill-gotten gains. Congress required the President to consider information provided in writing jointly by majority and ranking leadership of the congressional committees under whose jurisdictions the use of sanctions in foreign policy and national security policy generally resides-Senate Banking and Foreign Relations, and House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs. When signing the bill into law, however, the President singled out this requirement as a challenge to constitutional separation of powers (see text box). SIGNING STATEMENT On signing the NDAA FY2017 into law on December 23, 2016, President Barack Obama issued a signing statement to clarify his intentions to implement the various provisions. Its closing observation provided: Several other provisions in the bill also raise constitutional concerns.... Finally, section 1263(d) purports to require me to determine whether a foreign person has committed a sanctionable human rights violation when I receive a request to do so from certain members of Congress. Consistent with the constitutional separation of powers, which limit the Congress's ability to dictate how the executive branch executes the law, I will maintain my discretion to decline to act on such requests when appropriate. (emphasis added) In addition, Congress created a means for foreign governments or nongovernmental organizations to weigh in with credible information on possible designees. The act authorizes the President to delist an individual if he determines that (1) the offense did not occur; (2) the person has been prosecuted for the offense; (3) the person has https://crsreports.congressge

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