The Parliamentary Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT) recommended that a Human Rights Impact assessment (HRIA) be carried out of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This paper explores some of the key issues that need to be considered in working towards the implementation of this recommendation.  The paper explores what an HRIA is and what it can be expected to achieve. It then sets out details of previous human rights impact assessments and social impact assessments of trade agreements and, on the basis of  these experiences, makes a series of recommendations regarding how the Canada-Colombia FTA assessment should be conducted. It considers the Recommendation of the CIIT for an HRIA, and suggests a model for oversight of the process. Following this it provides outline methodologies for assessing the impacts of different types of FTA provisions – agricultural liberalisation provisions, investment provisions and labour protection provisions. Finally it summarises the key steps that should be demanded of any HRIA of the Canada-Colombia FTA and suggests some follow-up strategies.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Dr James Harrison, Assistant Professor and Fellow, Centre for Human Rights in Practice, University of Warwick

Publisher: 2009, CCIC Americas Policy Group

Online Source(s)

Where possible, links are provided here to the original publication sources. Click on Source Title to open the document, but please note that this redirects you to a different website.

Language	Format	Source Title
English	PDF document	Conducting a Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: Key Issues