The European Union announces a series of sanctions against those responsible for violating women’s rights in six countries

It is an unprecedented and symbolic approach on the eve of March 8. The European Union adopted, Tuesday, March 7, sanctions against those responsible for sexual violence and violations of women’s rights in six countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Russia. These sanctions also concern South Sudan, Burma, and Syria. This is a first in the EU against perpetrators of sexual violence, said Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra.

“By imposing these sanctions, we are sending a clear message to the culprits that their crimes will not go unpunished,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. “These horrific and inhuman crimes have consequences. It is also a message to the victims: the EU will support you, wherever you are in the world”.

Sexual violence as a “tactic of war”

Among those sanctioned with asset freezes and an EU entry ban are two Taliban officials: Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem, “responsible for the widespread violation of women’s right to education” and Vice Minister for Virtue Promotion and Prevention Mohammad Khalid Hanafi. A Moscow police official, Alexander Fedorinov, and one of his subordinates, Ivan Ryabov, are also targeted, accused of arbitrary arrests and torture of anti-war demonstrators. As well as two senior Russian military officials, Nikolai Kuznetsov and Ramil Ibatoullin, for sexual violence and rape committed by men under their command in Ukraine in March and April 2022.

Two local South Sudanese officials who lead pro-government militias, Gatluak Nyang Hoth and Gordon Koang Biel, are sanctioned for “systematic use of sexual violence as a tactic of war”. Also in the European viewfinder, the Burmese deputy interior minister, Toe Ui. He is accused of allowing military security personnel under his authority to use “forced nudity, rape, electroshock, burning of the genitals and excessive violence during arbitrary detentions and interrogations of men and women” and especially “members of the LGBTQI community”.