Australia Magnitsky

"Australia Magnitsky" is the informal name for Australia's thematic (or "Magnitsky-style") autonomous sanctions framework, established by amendments to the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 and the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011 that took effect on 8 December 2021. The reforms were passed as the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Act 2021, following recommendations from a 2020 report by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

Unlike Australia's earlier sanctions regimes, which were organised primarily by country (e.g. Iran, Russia, DPRK, Myanmar), the Magnitsky-style framework allows the Minister for Foreign Affairs to designate persons or entities on thematic grounds, regardless of nationality. The four current thematic categories are:

• Serious violations or abuses of human rights
• Serious corruption
• Significant cyber incidents
• Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (added/clarified through the reforms)

Designations impose targeted financial sanctions (asset freezes and prohibitions on making assets available to listed persons) and travel bans under the Migration (IMMI 18/033: Specification of Class of Persons) Instrument. Listings are published on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Consolidated List.

Australia used the regime for the first time on 21 March 2022, listing individuals connected to the murder of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky (after whom such laws are named globally), as well as Myanmar military figures and perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. Subsequent designations have targeted actors linked to Iran's morality police following the death of Mahsa Amini (2022), cyber actors connected to the Medibank data breach (2024 listing of Aleksandr Ermakov — Australia's first cyber sanction), and individuals involved in atrocities in multiple jurisdictions.

The framework aligns Australia with comparable regimes operated by the United States (Global Magnitsky Act 2016), the United Kingdom (Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020), Canada (Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act 2017), and the European Union (EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime 2020).