gave several suggestions regarding the regime, such as that it should symbolically carry Sergei Magnitsky’s name, and that an EU-level advisory committee may be set up to oversee the regime. On 9 December 2019, Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, confirmed that the member states of the EU have reached a strong consensus on the proposed regime, and thus the European External Action Service will start to prepare the documentation for the sanction regime. After 6 months, the European Parliament passed a resolution regarding the Hong Kong national security law on 15 June 2020, in which it called for the council to finalise the preparatory work on the sanction regime, and to use the regime to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for the Hong Kong national security legislation. On 22 March, 2021, sanctions were applied against a number of individuals and entities from China, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, South Sudan and Russia. Among those targeted were Minister of State Security Jong Kyong-thaek and Minister of Social Security Ri Yong-gil allegedly for 'torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment' and executions by the police forces in North Korea. However, the impact of these sanction is thought to be minimal to North Korea and that the sanctions were driven by external factors, instead of any situations inside the DPRK. Reasons for Implementation A faster and more flexible process At the present time, the procedure required to impose an EU sanction on an individual are complex and long, and is thus usually only utilized when a major event involving violent conflict or democratic backsliding occurred. Under an article in the Lisbon Treaty concerning terrorism, any measures of freezing funds or assets must be adopted by the Council and the European Parliament through the normal legislative procedure. In contrast, the new sanction framework, albeit not yet finalized, can provide a more simple procedure to blacklist human right violators without having to adopt a new legislation every time. Avoidance of unintended negative effect All the previous sanctions imposed by the EU in the past, except the terrorism list, are all state-based sanctions. In contrast, the new sanction regime will be individual-based. While state-based sanctions may induce a deterrent effect on countries guilty of human rights violations, they may also unintendedly affect the social rights and the quality of life of innocent civilians