* The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act is applicable only to human rights defenders, and only when their abusers are foreign nationals. If there is a US-based company or firm that is promoting or is compliant with censorship abroad, it cannot be held accountable under that particular provision in the US.
* The most recent sanctions against Iran, North Korea, and Russia (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), essentially designates IRGC as a terrorist organization.
The IRGC will be placed on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists following these procedures becoming law and US President Donald Trump taking the engagements necessary. The following is a list of the actions stated in this House resolution:
All assets and property in the US belonging to IRGC-linked individuals and entities will be frozen.
No American individual or entity has the right to establish financial, business, services or other affiliations with any individuals directly or indirectly associated to the IRGC.
No American individual or entity has the right to violate these sanctions through intermediaries or bypassing these procedures.
All individuals and entities having any relations with the IRGC must be sanctioned. Considering the fact that the IRGC officially enjoy a variety of connections and associations, this will effectively be paralyzing for Iran. One such example is the IRGC Khatam al-Anbiya group that is currently cooperating with more than 2,500 economic firms. All these companies will be sanctioned, rendering any relations with them illegal.
As these measures place the IRGC under secondary banking sanctions, practically no financial institution will be permitted to provide direct and/or indirect banking services to IRGC-linked individuals and entities. No foreign bank will cooperate with any Iranian entity that is in any way related to the IRGC and/or its affiliated entities.
The issue here is not so much undesirable designation as enforcement. The administration needs to consistently place any individuals associated with IRGC on sanctions list and make it into a frequent and very public embarrassment.
Likewise, there are many groups and individuals in Iran, associated with terrorism and human rights abuses who are not IRGC and are not affiliated with it. They, too, should not be overlooked. Quick research will reveal that many such low level individuals are employed in the police, serve as doctors in prison, judges, and others, who facilitate all sorts of horrible activity with no legal repercussions.
Although much of the current human rights legislation aimed at curtailing human rights abuses in Iran is aimed at protecting human rights defenders, the regime does not distinguish between human rights defenders and everyone else. Random people are swept up on trumped up charges, such as "national security" violations and under blasphemy laws. Highlighting and exposing the abuse of blasphemy laws to cover up abuse against human rights defenders should be a top priority for the US and anyone concerned with the horrific abuses in Iran.
Similarly, human rights legislation aimed at other countries, such as Venezuela and North Korea, should be reviewed and updated periodically. One recent piece of legislation aims to blacklist individuals associated with abuse of participants in the massive 2014 anti-government protests, forgetting that much has happened since then, and neither opposition activity nor human rights abuses stopped with that particular episode.
Finally, there is no US legislation penalizing either states or individuals for arbitrary detentions,serious human rights abuses, and extortionism involving the abduction of US nationals. The closest that we have is a serious of reporting requirements by the executive branch to Congress, which does nothing to pressure the culprit states such as Iran, North Korea, or Turkey that extrajudicial torture, arrests on trumped up charges, and disappearances of our citizens and permanent residents will not be tolerated. I would recommend in strongest possible terms legislation holding states and individuals involved accountable for such acts of aggression against the United States.
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