December 2023 will mark three years since the EU adopted the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. While the EU has used different types of sanctions for over 30 years, the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime increases its power to hold crooked businessmen, politicians, and law enforcement officials accountable for human rights violations, particularly those suffered by girls and women, including one of the most egregious abuses—sexual and gender-based violence used as a weapon of war.
The European Union’s Use of Global Human Rights Sanctions in 2023, a new report from Open Society–Europe and Central Asia, provides a one-year review of how the sanctions have worked. While the report highlights successes, it also provides recommendations about how the sanctions can strengthen cooperation between the EU and civil society, increase the use of sanctions when women and girls are victims, and help develop an anticorruption framework to address corruption globally.