It coincides with President Joe Biden's 2-day virtual Summit for Democracy.
The Biden Administration has imposed a slew of new sanctions relating to human rights in China, Myanmar, North Korea & Bangladesh - coming as the US doubles-down on its pro-democracy initiatives around the world.
Canada and the UK have also mirrored these sanctions Myanmar & its military, who have been accused of human rights abuses following the February 1 coup on leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo believes these collective sanctions will "send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse the power of the state to inflict suffering and repression."
It coincides with President Joe Biden's 2-day virtual Summit for Democracy, in which similar commitments have been made by more than 100 of the world's leaders.
Artificial intelligence company SenseTime - which has been accused of creating facial recognition programs that can determine a target's ethnicity, largely focusing on the Uyghur ethnic group - has been placed under an investment ban.
Bangladesh’s 'Rapid Action Battalion' and 6 individuals linked to it were also sanctioned for being "an entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse," according to Al Jazeera.
It’s also the first time new sanctions have been imposed on the DPRK since Biden's inauguration.
Watch our full report here.