Harrison, James, 1974- and Goller, Alessa. (2008) Trade and human rights : what does 'impact assessment' have to offer? Human Rights Law Review, Vol.8 (No.4). pp. 587-615. ISSN 1461-7781

Abstract

This article will examine key issues associated with conducting human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) of international trade agreements. It records the widespread calls for such HRIAs by relevant actors, but highlights the fact that limited attempts have so far been made to explore important issues concerning their design and intrinsic value. It therefore poses some key questions which need to be considered in the development of appropriate methodologies and explores the extent to which these methodological issues can best be appropriately resolved. In so doing, the article considers lessons from existing practice in the field including ‘social’ impact assessments of trade agreements and the limited number of HRIAs so far conducted, which are specifically focused on international trade law issues. As a result of this analysis some conclusions are drawn about the value and limitations of HRIAs of trade agreements, and the extent to which we can expect them to enhance the debate about human rights law and trade law inter-linkages in the future.

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