Using Electric Circuits to Develop a TWAIL-Based Critique of the Global Human Rights (Magnitsky) Sanctions Regime

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8134708
AutoresShahab Saqib (0000-0002-2522-2801, University of Birmingham, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Páginas1-25
Data de publicação2026-03-06
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMiddle East Critique (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1943-6149 • E-ISSN: 1943-6157
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19436149.2026.2630128
OpenAlexW7134039519
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas15

The Global Human Rights Sanctions (GHRS) regime was established by the US in response to the death of Sergei Magnitsky in 2016. It empowered governments to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities that committed serious human rights abuses, such as torture. Since then, the regime gained widespread acceptance in First World countries, particularly in the UK, the EU, Canada, and Australia. However, whilst the regime was aimed at human rights violators in general, in practice, it demonstrated a particular bias against state actors from the Third World. This article critically examines the GHRS regime through the lens of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). It contends that the regime is built on a colonial ontological premise, designed to perpetuate systemic bias against the Third World. To visualise this systemic bias, the article uses electric circuit diagrams that demonstrate the biased architecture of the GHRS regime. The article also highlights how the regime operates on a racial binary that dehumanises the Third World by using human rights as a form of weapon. In so doing, it moves beyond descriptive critique to provide an innovative way of imagining how human rights discourse can serve as an instrument of subordination

Civil rights · Electronic circuit · Human rights · Sanctions · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · International Law and Human Rights · World Trade Organization Law