Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011
The Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth) commenced on 27 May 2011. The purpose of the Act is to provide Australia with a framework to apply sanctions either supplementary to, or independent of, United Nations Security Council sanctions.
The sanctions that can be applied under the Act are punitive measures that do not involve the use of armed force, including targeted financial sanctions, travel bans and arms embargoes. Regulations will primarily be used to apply sanctions measures and an exposure draft of the regulations will be released soon.
The objective of the legislation is to apply sanctions in situations of international concern to try to change the situation. These are targeted measures applying only to specific governments, individuals or entities or to goods and services that relate specifically to the situation of concern.
Autonomous sanctions are not new to Australia, having previously been applied through existing legislative instruments. This has resulted in less flexibility in the range of measures that Australia could implement. For example, autonomous arms embargoes applied under the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations 1958 were limited to the export of tangible goods, thus excluding intangible goods or military services.
The autonomous sanctions legislation will apply to all Australians within or outside Australia. It will mainly affect those involved in military, armament and defence areas including the trading of defence material or trading in goods to armed states.
Penalties for contravening the sanctions law include a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and a fine the greater of $275 000 or three times the transaction value for individuals. For bodies corporate, a fine the greater of $1.1 million or three times the transaction value applies.
The main message about the commencement of the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 is to exercise due diligence when trading with sanctions-affected countries and to monitor the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about changes to sanctions.
For more information please visit - http://www.dfat.gov.au/un/unsc_sanctions/index.html
