Trade and Human Rights - High Level Panel discussion

3D → THREE and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are pleased to announce a panel discussion entitled ‘Defining People-Centred and Development-Oriented Trade Policy - Can a Human Rights Approach Help?’ that will take place during the WTO Public Forum on September 24^th, in Geneva.    

This is the first time the WTO Public Forum has had a panel focusing on human rights.  Its high-level panel of speakers (including UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter; law Professor and long-time expert on trade and human rights, Rob Howse; Ambassador Angélica Navarro Llanos of Bolivia and Ibrahim Salama, formerly member of the Working Group on the Right to Development) will ensure a wide-ranging, focused and challenging discussion.  The session will take place in English, French and Spanish with simultaneous interpretation.

The objective of this session is to explore what tools are available within the human rights toolkit to ensure that trade and other – social, environmental, cultural – policies can work in a mutually-supportive way to improve standards of living and sustainable development for all.  In particular, speakers will discuss some of the conceptual issues at the intersection of trade and human rights, how human rights mechanisms can be applied to promote human rights-consistent and people-centred trade policies, and how the human rights framework can help countries define trade policies that are really suited to their needs.

Participation in the Forum is free and open to all, but participants must register online before 5 September.

Click here for the full programme of the Forum as well as a detailed abstract of the Trade and Human Rights session.

Those interested in the subject but unable to be in Geneva can participate through the e-forum.