With the government preparing to table its amendments to the Canadian version of the Magnitsky Act, a renowned international human rights lawyer says such legislation could help mitigate rights abuses in the world.
Bill S-226 would establish Magnitsky-style sanctions on human rights violators not only in Russia but worldwide, denying them visas and seizing their assets.
Winnipeg-based David Matas says one of the greatest promoters of rights violations is impunity, and the bill “shows that there is a penalty or cost for violating human rights, and it might discourage people from continuing the violation. It might help end the violation.”
He says it is important the bill “applies globally”—which it does in its current form.
“It undercuts the very notion of respect of human rights if you are going to promote the respect for human rights in one country not the other,” he said.
The legislation is named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered the largest tax fraud in his country’s history and was subsequently detained for a year in a Moscow prison and tortured. He died in November 2009 after being beaten by eight guards while handcuffed to a bedrail. He was 37.
