On December 7, 2020, the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation 2020/1998 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses.
The Regulation which has entered into force today December 8, 2020, imposes the freezing of funds and economic resources of, and the prohibition to make funds and economic resources available to any natural or legal persons, entities or bodies including States and non-State actors, responsible for, providing support to or otherwise involved in serious human rights violations or abuses, as well as those associated with such persons (Article 3).
Fall under the scope of the Regulation any natural person, national of a Member State, irrespective of his/her location, any legal person incorporated or constituted under the law of a Member State and any legal person in respect of any business done in whole or in part within the EU (Article 19).
As a result, any of the aforementioned person responsible for, or involved in genocide, crime against humanity, torture, slavery, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrests, as well as other human rights violations encompassing human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence, violations of freedom of association, of opinion and of religion will have of its funds frozen (Article 2).
This Regulation paves the way for the imposition of mandatory human rights due diligence at the European level.