Extraterritorial human rights obligations of the European Union in the context of the economic partnership agreement with the ACP states

Abstract

This thesis examines the extraterritorial human rights obligations of the EU in the context of the Economic Partnership Agreements with the ACP states. It clarifies that these agreements engender substantial negative effects on the protection of economic, social and cultural rights of individuals in ACP states. The relevant obligations to respect and to protect are then set out. For the negative effects to constitute breaches of human rights obligations by the EU, they need to have an extraterritorial effect and must be incumbent on the EU. It is thus demonstrated that there is a solid basis in international law for the existence of extraterritorial obligations, and that such obligations are also incumbent on the EU, both through the international legal order and through the European legal order. Relying on these findings, several political and judicial ways are finally set out to hold the EU accountable for the violations of its extraterritorial human rights obligations.