human rights
After a visit to the Makassed Islamic Charitable Hospital in East Jerusalem where they met victims of Israel’s latest attack on Gaza, GUE/NGL MEPs are calling for an immediate end to the EU-Israeli association agreement.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) says it has filed a complaint with the European Union over its free trade talks with Vietnam.
On July 10, the Palestinian BDS National Committee issued a call: "We urge people of conscience to intensify their pressure on governments to impose a military embargo on Israel and to suspend free trade and bilateral agreements with it until it fulfills its obligations under international law."
A PKR lawmaker demanded today that Putrajaya reveal the trade relationship between pro-Palestine Malaysia and Israel amid the bloody conflict in Gaza.
The UK-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty that was ratified by the House of Commons on 10 July 2014 poses grave risks to the achievement of human rights and the successful implementation of agreements currently being made in the peace dialogues between the FARC guerrilla and the Colombian Government in Havana.
Explaining the boycott, Mohamed Hussain ‘Mundhu’ Shareef, minister at the President’s Office, said “Israeli investment is not important for us. We want investments from countries with human rights practices that are acceptable to us.”
The New Democratic Party and civil society groups are accusing the Harper government of whitewashing human rights abuses in Colombia in the latest report to Parliament on the impact of Canada’s free trade agreement with the South American country.
The European Union is insisting on a human rights clause linked to a proposed economic partnership agreement (EPA) with Japan. It allows Brussels to suspend the trade deal if Japan engages in human rights violations
Colombian unions and farmers opposed the free trade agreement strongly, and today hold it responsible for increasing poverty while fostering a climate in which corporate rights are paramount and labor rights hardly exist.
EU-Vietnam FTA: GUE, Greens, and civil society obtain partial but important victory for human rights
A resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 17 April 2014 recommended the European Commission address key human rights concerns during FTA negotiations with Vietnam.
Vietnam has released two more high-profile dissidents, making a total of four political prisoners freed over the past three weeks.
This is the third time the Conservative government has attempted to produce an impact assessment of its 2011 FTA with Colombia, as required by law, and each time the final report has been completely inadequate.
In a letter addressed to the representatives of the European Commission, FIDH, CNCD 11.11.11 and Aitec express their concerns on the way human rights are taken into account in the impact assessment regarding the future DCFTA between the EU and Egypt.
The European Parliament will vote a resolution on “the state of play in the EU-Vietnam Free Trade agreement”. While not having a legislative aim at this stage, it represents an important opportunity for the EP to formulate the human rights safeguards that will ensure its latter consent, say FIDH in this open letter to MEPs.
FIAN International launched an action letter addressing the EU, USA and a number of countries negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) asking civil society networks, organizations and people interested in supporting the campaign to circulate, sign and send the letter to their local authorities
The Alternative Trade Mandate has been developed in extensive civil society consultations all over Europe.
On June 14th, the Canadian government quietly tabled its second report on the human rights impacts of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The report avoids any examination of the impact of Canadian investment — including oil, gas and mining – in Colombia.
Brussels wants to diversify its energy resources away from Russia. It is offering benefits such as free trade and visa liberalisation and is seeking comprehensive reforms across a range of areas as a precondition for closer ties. But Azerbaijan’s human-rights situation is on a rapid decline.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), would like to ask the European Union to conduct an impact assessment that adequately encompasses the human rights situation before continuing the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement launched in March 2013 with Vietnam.
Following a decision of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (“UNHRC“) in 2010 that a Turkish businessman had suffered violations of his human rights after being illegally convicted of economic crimes, a claim for compensation is now being pursued under the Turkey-Turkmenistan bilateral investment treaty (“BIT“). This case therefore highlights the interesting interaction between the human rights and investment protection regimes.
