Magnitsky-style laws in Australia could cut off Uighur abusers: Amal Clooney

Amal Clooney has told a parliamentary committee a Magnitsky-style Act could strip assets from those involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Human Rights lawyer Amal Clooney is seen on a screen as she gives evidence in front of a Senate Inquiry on the topic of the Magnitsky Act at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AAP

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney says proposed Magnitsky-style laws in Australia targeting human rights abusers could be used to target officials and companies involved in the detention of Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

Ms Clooney, an international law expert and the wife of actor George Clooney, told a parliamentary committee on Friday that the lack of a regional human rights framework in Asia made it more difficult to bring abusers to justice.

She said if Australia were to introduce a Magnitsky-style Act, it could be used to strip visas and assets from those involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, where a million Uighurs are detained in camps and forced to work in slave-like conditions.

“The internment of a million people on religious grounds is certainly a basis for the imposition of human rights based sanctions,” she told the committee’s Kimberley Kitching.

“Could such sanctions also capture companies complicit in the type of abuse you are talking about? I would say absolutely I think that would be a positive.

“Companies are used to operating on the basis of incentives and we need to redress the balance where it may be profitable to do this kind of thing and at the moment there is often no penalty.”

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has asked the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade to consider whether Australia should introduce a Magnitsky-style Act, based on US laws allowing visa and property-related sanctions on human rights violators and those involved in corruption.

Clooney appeared at the parliamentary committee on Friday via video link. Picture: AAP

If Australia introduced Magnitsky-style legislation, it would become the fourth of the Five Eyes intelligence network countries to pass such laws, after the US, Britain and Canada. Similar legislation has been implemented in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Gibraltar, while seven other countries, plus the EU, are considering their own legislation.

Child rights agency Save the Children is part of a coalition of human rights groups calling on the Australian government to introduce the laws.

“Australia’s existing sanctions framework is not fit for purpose and does not go nearly far enough to hold perpetrators of human rights abuses, and particularly abuses against children, to account,” the agency’s Simon Henderson said.

“Australia should expand the classification of sanctionable conduct to include violations of international humanitarian law, meaning heinous acts like attacks on schools and hospitals, the killing and maiming of children and the use of sexual violence against children can be grounds for sanctions. This will help ensure Australia does not become a haven for rights abusers to store their wealth.”