Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 14, 2021

Western Countries Should Apply Human-Rights Sanctions to Iran

Put the Magnitsky act, and its various counterparts, to work.

In 2012, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that would punish Russian officials involved in the imprisonment, torture, and death of the anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky. The law, which was expanded in 2016 so that it could be applied in places besides Russia, allows the government to target individuals, rather than whole economies, with sanctions and the freezing of assets. Other countries have since followed suit, and Naomi Levin urges them to use these legal tool against Iran:

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