The Minister for External Relations, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, has brought into force the United Nations Financial Sanctions (Jersey) Law 2017, as of 1 April 2017.
The law enables Jersey to comply with its obligations under the UN Charter to put financial sanctions restrictions in place ‘without delay’ – the Financial Action Task Force says this means within 48 hours.
UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions , once implemented by the EU, are given effect in orders made by the Minister for External Relations. However, due to the processes by which EU legislation is drafted, which includes translation into several languages, there can be a delay of up to four weeks before these sanctions resolutions take effect.
The new law means any new persons or entities designated by the relevant UNSC sanctions committee for an asset freeze will be automatically designated in Jersey. It also means any new sanctions regime created by the UNSC will have effect in Jersey within two days.
Subject to further legislative changes enabled by this law, the maximum penalty for breaching sanctions will increase from a fine and two years’ imprisonment, to a fine and seven years’ imprisonment.
Jersey currently has over 20 international financial sanctions regimes in force, in addition to measures targeting entities such as the Taliban, ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida.