A/HRC/19/70
addressed the issue of “too big to fail” and the regulation of derivative markets through a
human rights lens.
48. Gabrielle Marceau, World Trade Organization, speaking on connecting trade,
development effectiveness and human rights, argued that the debate on human rights and
the world trade rules dated back to at least 1999. In her view, the world trade rules, the right
to development and human rights in general shared the same values and principles. Trade
was needed to create revenue to bring about economic growth. However, economic growth
alone did not bring economic justice automatically. Ms. Marceau referred to the Doha round
negotiations and the rules specifically targeting LDCs, according to which they were only
required to make commitments consistent with their economic and administrative
capacities. It was not the mandate of WTO to look into the equitable sharing of benefits
from trade. Transparency obligations were in place and Governments should report how
they spend benefits of trade. Ms. Marceau reported that there were gaps and that the WTO
Director-General had set up a section dealing with human rights and trade. She underlined
the need for close collaboration with the human rights community to allow trade to grow in
the right direction towards social justice and implementation of the right to development. In
her view, there were no legal impediments to taking human rights law into consideration,
indeed this was already happening, for example, in the context of intellectual property law
and in agriculture.
49. Jane Nalunga, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations
Institute, speaking on understanding the implications of multilateral and bilateral trade
agreements on the right to development and social welfare in Uganda, argued that trade
agreements impacted on all aspects of life. Under the WTO regime, member States were
obliged to abide to all agreements in a single undertaking. The decision process was
undemocratic and unfair, largely determined by developed countries. All national laws had
to be WTO compliant. Most developing countries lacked the capacity to take advantage of
the existing flexibilities under WTO law, sometimes they were not used in order to attract
investors or through donor pressure. WTO had a retaliation and sanctions mechanism,
which did not exist under the human rights framework. The principal reason for the stalling
of the Doha round concerned the structural inequalities in WTO. The trade-related aspects
of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) primarily protected corporate interests. Problems
resulting from protection of intellectual property included food security, access to medicines
and education and transfer of technology. There was the need to ensure the protection of
human rights in all multilateral and bilateral trade agreements and to reform the WTO and
trade negotiating systems.
50. Tenu Avafia, United Nations Development Programme, addressed the role of
intellectual property in facilitating or impeding access to pharmaceutical products, in
particular for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Prior to the existence of the Agreement on TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods,
countries had more flexibility to shape national intellectual property laws. The TRIPS
agreement restricted that policy space to three groups of flexibilities, namely preventative,
remedial and enforcement flexibilities. He encouraged countries to make use of these
existing flexibilities and noted that it was important to provide assistance and guidance to
countries on how best to make use thereof. He expressed concern over the provisions of
TRIPS-plus agreements contained in free trade or other bilateral trade agreements under
which developing countries’ use of these flexibilities might be compromised.
51. Representatives of the Housing and Land Rights Network, Egypt, Qatar, the
Association for World Citizens, Cuba, the Russian Federation, Egypt (on behalf of the NonAligned Movement) and North-South XXI made interventions. Concern was expressed over
the existing parallel legal structures and the question was raised how best to dismantle them.
There was a need to create an enabling environment through international solidarity and
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