EU-Vietnam FTA: GUE, Greens, and civil society obtain partial but important
victory for human rights
FIDH
- 23 April 2014
The
resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 17 April 2014 on the state of
play of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an important step towards
strengthening human rights protection, FIDH and the Vietnam Committee on Human
Rights (VCHR) said today. Despite the opposition of the PPE, but mainly due to
the effort made by Greens and GUE the resolution recommended the European
Commission address key human rights concerns during FTA negotiations with
Vietnam.
“ The European Parliament’s
Resolution is a clear warning to Vietnam. For Europeans, human rights are
essential in all areas, business
included” said VCHR
President Vo Van Ai. ” The European
Parliament calls for the conditioning of the Free Trade Agreement on concrete
human rights progress, and for suspending it in case of grave violations. For
without the safeguards of freedom of expression and the press, the right to form
independent trade unions and civil society organizations, free trade between the
EU and Vietnam’s one-party state will only harm the Vietnamese people and
prejudice sustainable development.”
Without the inclusion of human rights safeguards any future an FTA risks
exacerbating an already serious human rights situation. Vietnam currently holds
over 200 political prisoners - the highest number in Southeast Asia. Many of
them have been arrested and imprisoned for promoting land and environmental
rights and opposing so-called ’development’ projects that have a negative impact
on local communities.
The resolution urged the European Commission to conduct a human rights impact
assessment in line with the guiding principles of the UN Special Rapporteur on
the right to food. By doing so , it also reminded the Commission that the human
rights impact assessment must be conducted by an independent body before the
conclusion of the FTA and must be conducted in order obligations to avoid and
mitigate the potential adverse impact of its trade and investment policies on
human rights It also by then underscored the European Commission’s protracted
failure to comply with its obligation despite the repeated calls made by FIDH
and VCHR.
The resolution also called on the Commission to apply "an approach based on
conditionality, so as to offer signing of the FTA in exchange for concrete
progress on human rights” with particular reference to freedom of speech of
individual citizens, freedom of the media and freedom of religion made in the
resolution. Finally, an additional improvement from the European Union practice
regarding FTAs is the request made by the European Parliament to see human
rights be subject of regular scrutiny including by civil society because of the
specific request made to mention them in a the suistanaibility development
chapter of the future agreement.
Despite these positive recommendations, FIDH and VCHR regret that because of the
lack of support from other political parties, several important measures
proposed by the Greens and the GUE were not adopted. Among the proposed measures
was the prohibition on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and
the failure to introduce a clause that guarantees that protection of investments
does not take precedence over the state’s human rights obligations.
This is highly problematic. The protection granted to investors and the ISDS
mechanisms have allowed the private sector to challenge legislation adopted by a
state to regulate in the public interest (i.e. health, environment, human
rights). Experience has shown that states have been sued for millions for having
adopted legislation safeguarding standards in those fields. Finally, while FTAs
grant protection to investors, they fail to effectively protect individuals and
communities affected by trade and investments. The right to challenge
legislations is given to the private sector whithout clear requirement made to
arbitrators to take other interests than investment and trade law into account,
without clear procedure for affected parties to submit their arguments and by
bypassing internal judicial system
“ A lot remains to be done to ensure
an adequate protection of human rights in trade and investment policies of the
EU. This is a crucial issue for human rights in countries that engage in FTA
negotiations with the EU. It is also a crucial issue for all the
European countries in which austerity policies have already had an adverse
impacts on human rights”
said FIDH President Karim Lahidji. Indeed, On 16 April the European Parliament
confirmed that in case of trade and investment disputes, either the EU budget or
the EU member states’ budgets will inevitably be graved by important costs
because of the ISDS that may be concluded.
Background :
See our previous letters, press releases and other documents :
Open Letter : Vietnam and Free trade Agreement negotiations: NGOs urge the EU to
carry out a human rights impact assessment, 30 April 2013 ;
The EU’s Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy – one
year after its adoption, 24 June 2013 ;
Trade relations: Reluctant to assess human rights in Vietnam, the EU fails to
respect its commitments, 3 July 2013 ;
joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review tabled by FIDH and its
member organisation the Vietnam Committee on Human rights, 17 June 2013.