Mainstreaming human rights in the ACP-EU cooperation : human rights - an accessory or a serious counterpart to trade and financial instruments?

Abstract

The following paper discusses the complex nexus between human rights, trade and development in the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement. The agreement is based on an enhanced political dimension and defines human rights as one of the essential elements of the cooperation. The practical implementation of human rights is examined in two fields of cooperation, namely the trade and the financial cooperation. Although the EU has made appreciated attempts to mainstream human rights into both of them, in practice mainstreaming remains weak and inconsistent. Moreover, it is undermined with the EU’s conflicting interests and nature. The importance of analysing the ACP-EU cooperation from the human rights point of view lies in the fact that the process of trade agreements based on the Cotonou Partnership Agreement is still in the making. A thorough analysis based on human rights considerations is thus a contribution to the future and hopefully more human rights-friendly practice in implementing trade and financial cooperation.