Human Rights and World Trade Agreements

Summary: This publication has been prepared in view of the discussions around the sixth session of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China.
The relationship between trade and human rights has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. While trade can be an engine for the economic growth needed to combat
poverty and promote development, it can also threaten human rights in some situations.

Recent discussions on the effects of patents on the prices of essential medicines have underlined the right to health dimensions of trade. Nonetheless, there are ways to reconcile trade rules and human rights, and channel economic growth and development towards achieving a life in dignity for all.

This publication explores one of several, namely the use of general exception clauses in world trade agreements as a vehicle to protect human rights. In particular, it sets out to demonstrate how three specific exceptions—allowing States to take measures to protect public morals, human life or health, and public order—could be relevant to human rights.

Chapter I sets out the four steps to interpret these general exception clauses and describes, from a legal point of view, how they could be applied to protect human rights.

Chapter II relies on common sense as well as the World Trade Organisation’s seemingly flexible approach to defining the general exception clauses as means to defend human rights norms as legitimate exceptions to trade rules. More specifically, it argues that recognising international human rights norms in this way would help to dispel some of the perceived drawbacks of trade liberalisation. It would also enable States to comply with both their human rights obligations and their WTO commitments, and would show respect for the decisions of their parliaments and courts.

Finally, chapter III examines how trade dispute proceedings differ from adjudicatory systems under the human rights model. It describes the practical and legal pitfalls of raising human rights concerns before a forum meant to settle international trade disputes, and suggests ways of avoiding them.