The Future Of Human Rights Impact Assessments Of Trade Agreements

In an age of globalization, free trade should be synonymous with prosperity for all. Yet too often, small farmers, indigenous peoples, people with HIV, and others are left out of the picture. This book proposes a new way to make free trade work for all people. It examines how trade pacts can benefit people, but can also threaten their basic human rights to access food, medicines, and education, or to protect their cultural heritage. It develops a step-by-step process to identify the human impacts of trade before trade pacts are finalized. A case study examines the impact of a US-Central American trade agreement on access to medicines in Costa Rica, to demonstrate how the step-by-step process works in practice. The process works, but more efforts are needed to make sure such assessments of trade policies become standard practice. Human rights NGOs and academics, as well as governments, should lead the way in the future. The Future of Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade Agreements is important for all people who believe that globalization can do more, not just for corporations and the economy, but for everyone, even the poorest.

Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) has increasingly gained traction among state, business and civil society actors since the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the Human Rights Council in 2011. This timely and insightful Handbook addresses HRIA in the context of business and human rights.

This publication displays the menu for choice of available methods to evaluate the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). It caters mainly to policy makers from developing countries and aims to equip them with some economic knowledge and techniques that will enable them to conduct their own economic evaluation studies on existing or future FTAs, or to critically re-examine the results of impact assessment studies conducted by others, at the very least.

Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) has increasingly gained traction among state, business and civil society actors since the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the Human Rights Council in 2011. This timely and insightful Handbook addresses HRIA in the context of business and human rights. Employing state-of-the-art analysis of current practice, the contributors offer a dynamic overview of contemporary approaches to HRIA, looking ahead to its future trajectories. Chapters present key methodological concepts and new theoretical developments, comparing different approaches from project to sector and governance level. Collectively, these critical appraisals shed light on the role that HRIA can play in addressing the adverse human rights impacts of business activities and fostering sustainable development. Featuring extensive analysis of HRIA practice in a range of industrial contexts and global regions, this Handbook provides crucial insight for practitioners working with impact assessment, human rights, and sustainable development, as well as businesses, investors, government actors and multilateral institutions promoting responsible business conduct. Academics and others investigating human rights and impact assessments in business contexts will also benefit from this book's comprehensive analysis of theoretical developments in HRIA research. Contributors include: T. Bansal, S. Baumgartner, C. Brodeur, E. Buergi Bonanomi, R. Cleland, T.M. Collins, K.Y. Cordes, L.F. de Angulo, R. DeWinter-Schmitt, C. Doyle, G. Factor, B. Feiring, A. González Cavazos, N. Götzmann, J. Harrison, R.F. Jørgensen, S. Joyce, J. Loots, C. Lopez, S. McInerney-Lankford, B. Meyersfeld, I. Musselli, K. Salcito, C. Scheper, S. Szoke-Burke, I. Tamir, J.R. Tedaldi, N. ten Oever, D. Utlu, C.B. Veiberg, M. Wachenfeld, S. Walker, E. Wrzoncki, Y. Wyss, S. Zoen

This encyclopedia, edited by the past editors and founder of the Journal of Business Ethics, is the only reference work dedicated entirely to business and professional ethics. Containing over 2000 entries, this multi-volume, major research reference work provides a broad-based disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to all of the key topics in the field. The encyclopedia draws on three interdisciplinary and over-lapping fields: business ethics, professional ethics and applied ethics although the main focus is on business ethics. The breadth of scope of this work draws upon the expertise of human and social scientists, as well as that of professionals and scientists in varying fields. This work has come to fruition by making use of the expert academic input from the extraordinarily rich population of current and past editorial board members and section editors of and contributors to the Journal of Business Ethics.

An exploration of economic rights afforded Indigenous peoples in international law and their diffusion to international trade and investment instruments.

This comprehensive Commentary provides an in-depth analysis of each of the 31 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as the 10 Principles for Responsible Contracts. It engages in both a legal and contextual examination of the Principles alongside their application to real world practices at both the domestic and international levels.

For the first time, Human Rights and Tax in an Unequal World brings together works by human rights and tax law experts, to illustrate the linkages between the two fields and to reveal their mutual relevance in tackling economic, social, and political inequalities. Against the backdrop of systemic corporate tax avoidance, the widespread use of tax havens, persistent pressures to embrace austerity policies, and growing gaps between the rich and poor, this book encourages readers to understand fiscal policy as human rights policy, with profound consequences for the wellbeing of citizens around the world. The essays collected examine where the foundational principles of tax law and human rights law intersect and diverge; discuss the cross-border nature and human rights impacts of abusive practices like tax avoidance and evasion; question the role of states in bringing transparency and accountability to tax policies and practices; highlight the responsibility of private sector actors for the consequences of tax laws; and critically evaluate certain domestic tax rules through the lens of equality and non-discrimination. The contributing scholars and practitioners explore how an international human rights framework can anchor debates around international tax reform and domestic fiscal consolidation in existing state obligations. They address what human rights law requires of state tax policies, and what a state's tax laws and loopholes mean for the enjoyment of human rights within and outside its borders. Ultimately, tax and human rights both turn on the relationship between the individual and the state, and thus both fields face crises as the social contract frays and populist, illiberal regimes are on the rise.