The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, or the so-called European Magnitsky Act, has come into effect at the beginning of December 2020, just a couple of days before Human Rights Day on the 10th of December. This sanctions framework consists of two legal acts: Council Decision and Council Regulation that provide for targeted measures against any individual involved in gross human rights violations outside the EU borders. This blog post reveals how the discussion of this mechanism evolved within the EU, what changes it introduces and what gross human rights violations will be targeted.