Brussels, 15/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a draft recommendation adopted on 26 March, the European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly states that the lack of a specific human rights impact assessment as part of the negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and Vietnam “constitutes maladministration”. O'Reilly calls on the European Commission “to carry out such an assessment without further delay”. The Commission has until 30 June to submit a detailed opinion.
In O'Reilly's opinion she concludes that the complaint - which was lodged in August 2014 by the Worldwide Human Rights Movement (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) following the Commission's refusal to take human rights into consideration in its free trade negotiations with Vietnam - was well-founded, the NGOs FIDH and VCHR state in a press release published on Tuesday 14 April. The Commission nevertheless refused to meet its obligations on this issue on the grounds that a partial assessment had been conducted in 2009, FIDH and VCHR state.
In her draft recommendation, O'Reilly replies that this partial assessment, which only covers certain aspects of the impact on social rights, could not constitute an adequate substitute for an impact assessment on human rights. She also criticises the Commission's persistent silence on the lack of a human rights impact assessment on the chapter on investment and the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) included in the future agreement. In addition, O'Reilly rejects the Commission's argument that conducting a human rights impact assessment at such an advanced stage of the negotiations would have “unjustifiably burdensome and disproportionate effects”. “Respect for human rights cannot be made subject to considerations of mere convenience (…) As the complainants correctly pointed out, what is decisive is to ensure that the FTA with Vietnam, which is still being negotiated, will have no negative impact on human rights”, O'Reilly states.
“This recommendation creates an important precedent regarding several issues. Beyond the case of EU-Vietnam negotiations, it challenges the lack of a human rights impact assessment on ISDS and investment agreements or components of trade agreements currently being negotiated, like with Burma, China, Jordan, and the US. It insists on the need to conduct proper human rights impact assessments and cease the practice of only assessing certain social aspects. It recognises that human rights impact assessments should lead to concrete and efficient measures to ensure that the EU respects human rights, does not lower the existing standards of human rights protection, and ensures that trade and investment agreements will not adversely affect human rights”, said Karim Lahidji, FIDH President.
Whilst the EU-Vietnam free trade negotiations are nearing the end (see EUROPE 11284), repression is being stepped up in Vietnam, where at least 65 bloggers and protesters were sentenced and imprisoned in 2013 in violation of the right to freedom of expression, and at least 16 others in the first half of 2014, say FIDH and VCHR. Furthermore, civil society campaigners have been beaten for organising peaceful demonstrations, and hundreds of farmers have been dispossessed of their assets or wounded in demonstrations against forced expulsions and the confiscation of their land, the FIDH and VCHR state.
In its resolution of 17 April 2014 on the EU-Vietnam negotiations, the European Parliament calls for the inclusion in the future FTA of a chapter on sustainable development and a safeguard clause on human rights. The resolution calls for the future FTA to be made conditional on concrete progress on human rights and for a suspension clause to be provided in case of serious violations. It also asks the Commission to proceed with an impact assessment of the future FTA on human rights.
By a strange coincidence, the Commission's DG Trade announced on 14 April that a round table will be held with the stakeholders - representatives from the member states, from the European Parliament, from industry and civil society - on Tuesday 12 May, on trade, human rights and sustainable development as part of EU-Vietnam relations. (Emmanuel Hagry)