The Council of the EU on Monday announced that existing sanctions will extend to 28 new individuals for participation in “ongoing internal repression and human rights violations in Belarus”.  These sanctions restrict listed individuals or entities from traveling to or within the EU and forbid EU citizens and companies from making funds available to these individuals or entities. Currently, there are 261 individuals and 37 entities listed.

These new additions were listed in a  Regulation on July 26 which includes Belarusian government officials, operators of correctional institutions, and members of the state-run media.

EU Sanctions against Belarus were initially drafted in response to elections in 2020 that are widely considered fraudulent. They have been expanded and extended due to ongoing human rights violations, violence against peaceful protestors, and Belarus’s participation in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU states that the purpose of the sanctions is to “put pressure on Belarusian political leadership to prevent further violence and repression”. The Council of the EU has earmarked €3B to support a future democratic transition in Belarus, should the Belarusian authorities participate by adopting democratic reforms.

The US and Canada have imposed similar sanctions against officials in Belarus.

Since widespread protests began following the fraudulent 2020 election, the Belarusian state has begun to utilize property confiscation as a tool of political repression. Belarus has also been criticized for the imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators and political opposition activists by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the UN Human Rights Council, and the US Secretary of State. This repression is evidence of a “lack of judicial independence in Belarus”.