A call for a WTO ministerial decision on trade and human rights

In June 2014, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution establishing an inter-governmental working group to discuss a legally binding instrument relating to transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In this article, I outline four arguments for why such an instrument is desirable. Identifying the purpose of such a treaty is crucial in outlining a vision of what it should seek to achieve and in determining its content. The arguments indicate that a treaty is necessary to provide legal solutions to cure serious lacunae and ambiguities in the current framework of international law which have a serious negative impact upon the rights of individuals affected by corporate activities. The emphasis throughout is upon why a binding legal instrument is important, as opposed to softer forms of regulation such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The four arguments in turn provide the resources to respond to objections raised against the treaty and to reject an alternative, more restrictive proposal for a treaty that only addresses 'gross' human rights violations.

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Prospects and Challenges of Embedding the Human Right to Food Obligations into the Legal Framework for International Agricultural Trade Regulation

Makore

Osode

Lubisi

2022

CILSA

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Although many academic commentators have long argued that the World Trade Organization (WTO)-driven liberal rules of international agricultural trade regulation have a negative effect on the enjoyment of the human right to food, especially in developing countries, there is still a dearth of scholarship offering proposals to ameliorate the situation. This article fills this gap by presenting a discussion of the possible avenues for accommodating the food security-related human rights obligations of states in the extant legal framework for international agricultural trade regulation. It argues that such a development, among other measures, is a plausible response to the problem of food insecurity endemic in developing countries and which manifests in international agricultural trade regulation. The article contends that for the WTO to effectively address the human right to food concerns of developing countries, the free trade regulations, as practised in international agricultural trade, must be complemented with the human right to food as a supreme norm sine qua non lege. It is concluded that this eminently desirable outcome can be achieved through the assimilation of the human right to food into the ‘public morals clause’ of Article XX of the GATT, reading the human right to food into the Agreement on Agriculture, adopting some WTO Ministerial Conference proposals, re-configuring some WTO dispute settlement practices, and lastly, by adopting the proposal of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to food.

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A call for a WTO ministerial decision on trade and human rights

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

The Implications of EC – Seal Products for the Protection of Core Labour Standards in WTO Law

The Implications of EC – Seal Products for the Protection of Core Labour Standards in WTO Law

The Necessity for a Business and Human Rights Treaty

Prospects and Challenges of Embedding the Human Right to Food Obligations into the Legal Framework for International Agricultural Trade Regulation

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