A/HRC/30/44 4. Thematic focus 8. The meeting is expected to address the following issues: Public participation 9. The level of proactive information provided by governments and transnational enterprises and financiers in the process of elaboration, negotiation and adoption of free trade and investment agreements and the opportunity of the public to meaningfully participate in the process are often not compliant with article 25 of the ICCPR. The rapid adoption of these agreements in parliaments with little consultation or participation, often influenced by lobbyists, prevents the electorate from voting on issues that affect them directly. 10. For this reason it is imperative to examine the role of Parliaments in monitoring the elaboration, negotiation and adoption of these agreements, their responsibility to legislate for the public interest notwithstanding FTAs, their power of modification and/or termination of FTA agreements that conflict with the proper exercise of State competences in protecting the environment, health and labour standards. The role of Parliaments in regulating the activities of transnational enterprises, especially in areas of environmental protection and health standards will also be discussed. 5. Impact on human rights 11. Existing and proposed free trade and investment agreements have far-reaching effects on human rights. International agreements impact the rights to employment and labour, the right to health, the right to food, and the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The normative framework to be examined will include the United Nations Charter, the two human rights covenants, the conventions on the rights of the child, the convention on migrant workers, the ILO Conventions on labour standards, WHO Conventions including the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and soft law resolutions and declarations including the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Guidelines on Business and Human Rights and the Declaration on the Right to Development. 12. A review of human rights concerns that have arisen in the past on the basis of the experience with free trade and investment agreements, especially concerning States’ obligation to adopt measures to progressively advance economic, social and cultural rights will notably be discussed. The “chilling effect” of the threat of costly Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) arbitrations, which may deter States in adopting social legislation, will also be explored. The question arises whether transnational corporations can ever be allowed to hinder the competence of States to legislate in the public interest, and whether States can waive their competences without negating the ontological nature of the sovereign State as understood in the UN Charter. 13. Participants will examine the pertinence of human rights impact assessments in the process of elaboration of free trade and investment agreements, as well as the usefulness of subsequent or follow-up human rights impact assessment. 6. Reviewing the primacy of human rights treaty obligations over Free Trade and Investment Agreements 14. During the consultation, participants will be able to express their views on the primacy of the UN Charter and in particular its human rights provisions over other treaties (Cf. Art. 103 of the UN Charter). The discussion should also address experiences with the use of exception clauses or clauses that allow States to legislate in the public interest without fearing financial consequences before ISDS Tribunals. To the extent that free trade 28