FIAN launches international action: TTIP and TPP void
FIAN | 23-12-2013
FIAN launches international action: TTIP and TPP void
States and EU urged to withdraw from negotiations on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership
December 23rd, 2013: 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). It asks civil society networks, organizations and people interested in supporting this campaign to please circulate, sign and send this letter to their local authorities with the aim to intervene — on the basis of international human rights law — in the current negotiations.
The action letter is open to all Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and individuals and invites for participation (see template letter below).
Due to the haste with which trade negotiations are taking place, the letter raises grave concerns about the TTIP and TPP initiatives both for procedure and content: These initiatives are being pushed through with unacceptable secrecy and lack of public scrutiny; they aim at tying States’ hands and preventing them from meeting their obligations under human rights law; and, if materialized, they would allow corporations to escape necessary regulation and limit the regulatory space of States for protecting and fulfilling human rights. Altogether, these agreements are seen as undermining the rule of law.
Pointing out that almost all States would violate human rights treaty law if they became parties to these agreements, a human rights analysis in a background letter concludes that these agreements conflict with the UN Charter and must not be aplied, as they ignore peremptory norms of international law. Therefore, they are void.
With this action letter, States and the EU are urged to withdraw from these negotiations and to engage in a worldwide transparent political process towards a new global investment and trade regime in line with international law, human rights and public interest.
See below a letter template for action (in word format) and a background letter of the TTIP and TPP agreements (both in English and in Spanish)
– Policy action TTIP-TPP background letter
– Policy Action TTIP-TPP
– Policy action TTIP-TPP carta de antecedentes
