The United Kingdom has finally adopted the long-awaited Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime aimed at tackling human rights abusers around the world. With the announcement of targeted measures known as Magnitsky sanctions against individuals and entities accused of serious human rights violations in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and North Korea on Monday the UK has now joined the United States and Canada in bringing in legislations to penalise rights’ abusers. The term “Magnitsky sanctions” is derived from the name of a Russian auditor, Sergei Magnitsky, who died from custodial torture in a Moscow jail in 2009 after his revelation of a $230 million dollar fraud by Russian tax officials in the UK.   The Magnitsky Act, first enacted by the US Congress in 2012, was hailed by human rights defenders as a much needed “smart tool” to counter autocratic regimes across the world. It   allows Western governments to target perpetrators without punishing the wider people of a coun...