Context: Under its new powers to punish human rights offenders, Britain has announced economic sanctions against individuals and organisations from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and North Korea.
Key Points

• Britain had previously imposed sanctions as part of the European Union or under the auspices of the United Nations.
• Since leaving the EU in January 2020, it has implemented its own version of the U.S.’s Magnitsky Act.
• This allows authorities to ban or seize assets of individuals guilty of human rights abuses.
• The U.K. law authorises the British government to prevent sanctioned individuals from entering the country, channeling money through British banks, or profiting from the U.K. economy.

Sanctions
The sanctions include 49 individuals and organizations:

• Saudi intelligence officials accused of involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
• Russian authorities implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky,  a lawyer who died in a Moscow prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials.
• Commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, and Myanmar army commander – accused of orchestrating systematic violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority.
• North Korean organisations: the Ministry of State Security Bureau and the Ministry of People’s Security Correctional Bureau, sanctioned for running prison camps in the authoritarian state.