Magnitsky Act
With the Magnitsky laws passed through Parliament, we will work with parliamentarians to have key abusers of Tibetan human rights sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act.
What do Magnitksy Sanctions Do?
Magntisky-style sanctions on individuals responsible for gross human rights violations allows Australia to deny perpetrators and beneficiaries of the most egregious conduct of international concern from accessing our economy and benefiting from the freedoms our democracy allows. Positioning Australia to act more quickly to freeze the funds of perpetrators and beneficiaries, and to prevent them from travelling here, ensures that Australia does not become an isolated, attractive safe haven for such people and entities, and their ill-gotten gains.
We want the Australian Government to take leadership and work with like- minded governments; bilaterally and multilaterally to impose targeted Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials, including the Provincial Party Secretaries and heads of government bodies reponsible for human rights abuses in Tibet.
Help end impunity for Human Rights abuses in Tibet
On 9th September, Tibet Lobby Day 2024, Australia Tibet Council and our Tibetan community delegates submitted names of Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet to the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Co-Chairs (AAPGT).
The AAPGT Co-Chairs Susan Templeman MP, Senator Dean Smith and Senator Barbara Pocock accepted the names which they will forward to the Foreign Minister’s office for consideration to apply Magnitsky-style sanctions.
Have Chinese officials been sanctioned in other countries?
The USA has sanctioned several CCP officials such as Wu Yingjie (Wu), Zhang Hongbo (Zhang), Chen Quanguo (Chen) and Zhu Hailun (Zhu) for their human rights abuses against Tibetans and Uyghurs. Their human rights crimes include extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions in Tibet. As well as forced sterilisation, coerced abortion, restrictions on religious and political freedoms, and the torture of prisoners. These are grievous human rights abuses, and yet the Australian Government is allowing the Chinese Government to commit these crimes with impunity.
The USA has also issued visa bans for CCP Officials relating to the Chinese Government-run Colonial Boarding schools, which have resulted in the separation of 1 Million Tibetan Children from their families into State-run institutions. The Officials were found to be responsible for this policy of forcible assimilation designed to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans.
Has Australia used Magnitsky sanctions on other countries?
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has applied Magnitsky-style sanctions against 13 individuals and three entities from Russia and Iran, and yet none to any Chinese Communist Party official responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong or in East Turkistan, home of Uyghurs.
he Australian Government announced Magnitsky-style targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli individuals, and targeted financial sanctions on one entity, for involvement in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Magnitsky: Campaign update
The Australian Government has now responded to recommendations about creating a Magnitsky-style law to impose financial and visa sanctions against human rights abusers. The response falls short of our expectations and remains below the gold standard set by our allies. However, there are some important improvements now proposed for Australia’s existing sanctions regime.
Magnitsky Act Now Ad
We have collaborated with a coalition of groups from across the Asia-Pacific to have a full-page advertisement published in The Australian newspaper calling for parliamentarians to pass the #MagnitskyActNow.