On 22 July, the Council of the European approved additional restrictive measures against four persons and two entities under the European Union’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. 

The listed individuals and entities are responsible for serious human rights abuses worldwide, including torture and systematic and widespread sexual and gender-based violence.

The designations include Evgeniy Sobolev, the head of the so-called “penitentiary service”, as installed by Moscow in the temporarily occupied Kherson oblast in Ukraine. 

“Under his command, a widespread and systematic pattern of human rights violations in detention facilities in areas under the Russian occupation authorities’ control, including the Kherson region, has been documented, including torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and sexual and gender-based violence,” says a press release by Council of the European Union.

The list also contains two high-ranking Syrian military officers, the minister of state security and a detention facility in North Korea (DPRK), and a Haitian gang.

With these new listings, restrictive measures under the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime now apply to 117 individuals and 33 entities from a range of countries. 

Those listed under the sanctions regime are subject to an asset freeze, and the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, to them or for their benefit, is prohibited. Additionally, a travel ban to the EU applies to the natural persons listed.