Media Advisory: Lantos Foundation to Award Human Rights Prize to Bill Browder at Washington Ceremony

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- On September 27, 2019 at 10:30 am at the Russell Senate Office Building's Kennedy Caucus Room in Washington, DC, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice will award its annual Lantos Human Rights Prize to Bill Browder, the driving force behind the Magnitsky Sanctions which are the most consequential enforcement mechanism of the modern human rights movement.

About Bill Browder: In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, an idealistic young Russian lawyer who uncovered massive tax fraud perpetrated by Russian officials, was charged with the very offenses he had uncovered. In an effort to cover up the crimes he had exposed, Magnitsky was sent to prison where he later died from abuse, neglect, and mistreatment. Bill Browder, for whom Magnitsky had worked, vowed to dedicate himself to seeking justice for Sergei and this crusade has made him a global human rights leader. First passed by the US Congress in 2012, the Magnitsky Act (later the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act), authorized sanctions of government officials implicated in serious human rights abuses. Sanctions can include freezing of US based assets and travel restrictions. Since its enactment, the US Government has sanctioned more than 70 officials in over a dozen different countries. Most recently, Magnitsky sanctions were enacted to penalize those Saudi Arabian officials implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Bill Browder's campaign for justice and accountability did not stop in the United States. Since 2012, similar Magnitsky laws have been enacted in Canada, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Latvia, and Lithuania. Despite fervent opposition from Russia and other lawless regimes that prefer to have their human rights abuses go unnoticed and unpunished, the European Union, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, and other EU member countries are considering the passage of their own Magnitsky laws.

What: Presentation of Lantos Human Rights Prize to human rights champion and father of the Magnitsky Act, Bill Browder

Who:
Bill Browder, Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient
Katrina Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice
Senator Ben Cardin
Congressman Jim McGovern

When: Friday, September 27, 2019 at 10:30 am

Where: The Russell Senate Office Building's Kennedy Caucus Room in Washington, DC

RSVP: Media interested in attending the event are asked to RSVP here.

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SOURCE Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice