Human rights clause. Will it remain weak? This shortcoming is underscored by the fact that those parts of the treaty so far published do not even contain the otherwise customary human rights clause. The EU incorporates such clauses either in its trade agreements or in the framework treaties to which the agreements refer, in order to demonstrate its international responsibility. At present, EU-Mercosur relations are governed by an interregional framework agreement, which entered into force in 1999 and contains such a human rights clause. Article 1 of that agreement states that “respect for democratic principles and human rights” constitutes an “essential element of this agreement”.97 According to the 1999 negotiating mandate, such a clause would also have to be in- cluded in the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement.98 However, as the EU has not yet published large parts of the Association Agreement, it is not possi- ble to analyse whether the envisaged human rights clause would eliminate the already known weakness- es of this instrument. In principle, this clause allows trade preferences to be suspended in the event of human rights violations. However, the barriers to its being triggered are so high that it has until now only been used in 24 cases, mostly in response to serious violations of democratic principles, such as coups d’état. Many other human rights violations have remained beyond its reach. Moreover, the measures taken have mostly been limited to consultations.99 In addition, the human rights clause does not allow measures to be taken to protect human rights if those measures violate the provisions of the trade agreements. If, for example, the agricultural quotas agreed in the EU-Mercosur Agreement were to aggra- vate the conflicts over land, it would nevertheless be impossible to suspend these preferences. Another shortcoming is that the clauses do not include bodies for monitoring the agreement and handling complaints.100
Human rights clause. 21.01 DISCRIMINATION Refer to Company Policy Manual. 21.02 HARASSMENT Refer to Company Policy Manual.
Human rights clause
