International Security Institute is preparing the Magnitsky Draft law, the adoption of which will allow Serbia to join the states in which serious human rights violations and high corruption are sanctioned at the international level.
The Magnitsky Act was passed in the United States in 2012 with the aim of punishing Russian officials who were involved in the arrest and subsequent murder in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. Since the first Magnitsky Act, adopted in the United States, such a law has been passed in eight more countries and territories, including Canada, Great Britain and the Baltic countries, as well as at the EU level.
The procedure for the adoption of the Magnitski Act is underway in five other countries, including Australia, Italy and Romania. This law was supported by the decisions of the OSCE, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other international organizations. Since its implementation in all countries where it is in force, sanctions have been imposed on 517 people from all over the world, who have committed serious human rights violations motivated by corruption. The Magnitski Act prohibits them from entering the countries where the law is in force and their property in those countries is frozen.
By passing this law Serbia will demonstrate in practice its commitment to fundamental international principles and documents in the field of human rights protection, prohibition of torture and prevention of corruption. With this law, Serbia would join the most developed democracies in the world in detecting and punishing the most cruel human rights violations, regardless of the country in which they occur. With this law, Serbia will not disrupt relations with countries whose officials severely violate human rights and participate in corruption, but will only impose personal sanctions on those officials in the form of a prohibition from entering Serbia and freezing their property and business in Serbia. In this way, Serbia will be effectively protected from providing shelter and business opportunities to foreign corrupt officials, who have committed serious human rights violations in their countries.