FIDH welcomes the adoption by the European Commission of new guidelines on Trade and Human Rights.
The “Guidelines on the analysis of human rights impacts in impact assessment for trade-related policy initiatives” and the "Handbook for Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment" which are to be finalized soon, aim to set up the framework of the impact assessments when regulating or concluding free trade and investments agreements. "
The guidelines "have been drafted on the basis of studies and findings of a number of external experts and existing academic literature, including the FIDH report on building trade consistency with human rights".
They aim notably to identify and prevent the impacts that trade policies may have on human rights in the EU and its partner countries, to avoid the negative ones and to enhance the positive ones. Echoing FIDH’s demands, the European Commission announced that impacts assessments "were foreseen to be launched soon for the investment agreement negotiations with Myanmar and China"