Including grand corruption in the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime: Why it matters

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When the EU adopted the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (GHRSR) to impose targeted sanctions on human rights violators, grand corruption remained outside the array of abuses covered by the instrument. Nevertheless, grand corruption creates the conditions for large-scale systemic human rights violations and enables patronal networks whose goals are inherently opposed to those of the EU’s values-based foreign policy. The inclusion of grand corruption in the GHRSR would provide Brussels with an instrument to influence these networks to its own advantage, address the root causes of human rights abuses and defend its own democratic institutions. Further changes to the GHRSR, such as the introduction of qualified majority voting and the inclusion of the European Parliament and/or civil society in the listing process, would complete the picture and make this sanctions regime a powerful tool for the Union’s foreign policy.