Charter of the United Nations Amendment 2021

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Charter of the United Nations Amendment 2021

## What it does

This bill updates how Australia enforces UN sanctions against terrorists and entities involved in terrorism financing. It changes the rules so that the government must now formally register all sanctions decisions (listing people, organisations, or assets) as official legislative instruments, rather than just using regulations that might not be properly documented.

## Why it matters

The changes make Australia's sanctions system more transparent and legally solid. Previously, some listings might not have been properly registered, which could have created legal gaps where sanctions weren't actually enforceable. This fix ensures that if someone or something was supposed to be sanctioned, the law actually backs it up.

## Key details

- **Commencement**: Comes into effect the day after the Governor-General gives Royal Assent
- **What's fixed**: The bill validates all old sanctions listings (going back to 2002) and ensures they count as enforceable even if they weren't properly registered at the time
- **How it works**: From now on, any decision to freeze assets or sanction a person/organisation must be made through a formal "legislative instrument" that gets publicly registered, leaving no room for technical loopholes

Official Description

Amends the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 to: specify that certain counter-terrorism financial sanctions lists and revocations be made by legislative instrument; and confirm the validity of action that has been taken, or which may need to be taken, in respect of conduct in relation to existing counter-terrorism financial sanctions listings that were made but not registered on the Federal Register of Legislation at the time of their making.

Committee Referrals

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

11 Aug 2021

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

13 Sept 2021

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

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