A/HRC/12/WG.2/TF/2 page 7 21. In the absence of the consultant, Mr. Schrijver outlined the study on the Cotonou Agreement. The key conclusions and recommendations of the report included the need for additional financing to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and a clear human rights framework underpinning all economic partnership agreements, especially in the context of the global crises, and the need to take full account of the right to development. 22. During the ensuing discussion, the Geneva office of the secretariat of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries stressed that they needed technical support to develop their capacity to integrate the right to development as they prepared for the mid-term review of the Cotonou Agreement. 23. Mr. Schrijver stated that, while punitive measures, such as the withdrawal of trade preferences, may at times be justified in response to human rights violations, a positive approach may be more instrumental to contribute structurally to the realization of the right to development. Positive measures to create an enabling environment could include trade diversification, aid for trade, and support for trade unions and institutional capacity-building. With regard to economic partnership agreements and human rights, he noted that, even without the inclusion of an explicit reference to human rights in each agreement, human rights are part of economic partnership agreements owing to the overall applicability of human rights provisions included in the Cotonou Agreement. 24. The European Commission clarified that, while economic partnership agreements are not explicitly conditional on the observation of human rights, the Cotonou Agreement allowed for the suspension of all its provisions, including agreements, in the event of human rights violations. He underlined, however, the complexity of using failure to respect human rights as a condition for withdrawing aid or removing trade preferences without negatively affecting the most vulnerable groups in the country concerned. The European Commission considered pertinent many of the additional criteria suggested by the consultant’s study, even though the reasoning for reaching such a suggestion might be open to challenge. Those criteria concerned climate change, democratic scrutiny, protection of women and other vulnerable groups, as well as methodology for benchmarking to assess the compliance of agreements with the right to development. The European Commission cautioned against rushing to free trade, and emphasized the need to move progressively towards freer trade with sensitivity to negative consequences, which could affect certain sectors in each country. It was also pointed out that there had been resistance among developing countries to discuss the integration of trade and development with human rights. However, the debate changed over time and the European Commission expected to work towards a more coherent policy approach for mutual reinforcement of trade, development and human rights. B. Assessment of additional global partnerships and dialogue with the Common Market of the South 25. Referring to the technical mission to the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, conducted in November 2008, Stephen Marks noted that, although these partnerships were generally not involved with United Nations human rights mechanisms, their engagement exceeded the