Close gap between constitutional rules and effective Human Rights implementation

The Subcommittee on Human Rights discussed the tools used to implement the Human Rights Clause and case studies on Tunisia, Vietnam and Ethiopia.

In a workshop on mechanisms to implement the human rights clause in EU agreements with partner countries, MEPs on the Subcommittee on Human Rights discussed with experts on the EU policy, including case studies on Ethiopia, Tunisia and Vietnam.

A gap between the EU’s legal rules-based order for external policies and the effective implementation of the human rights clause was detected. Reviewing the effectiveness of proposals to upgrade human rights clauses that are included in the EU’s agreements with Ethiopia, Tunisia and Vietnam, three countries in which the human rights situations have deteriorated in recent years, the author concludes that monitoring and enforcing these human rights clauses is not necessarily effective.

MEPs and experts discussed recommendations on how to enforce and supervise the implementation of the human rights clause, which included the following:

the findings of monitoring bodies should be accessible and transparent;

Domestic Advisory Groups should have a broader remit to include a specific human rights focus;

a new and separate complaints-handling portal should be established;

active engagement with civil society organisations needed;

a binding enforcement mechanism should be created and clear benchmarking for human rights put in place; and

the EU must coordinate its action to safeguard human rights.

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“We are prospectively entering into a multipolar world where new structures of competition and collaboration are going to be established. One of the EUs most important tasks of the next years is therefore to develop our external policies according to our goals and international commitments, first and foremost to defend a multilateral rule based order implementing social justice and human rights. They are crucial for the sustainable future of the world we Europeans would like to contribute to and live in”, said Udo Bullmann (S&D, DE) Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights.

Background

On 14 February, the Subcommittee on Human Rights held an exchange of views on the recent state of Human Rights Clauses in the EU’s external policy. Guest speakers included Gaëlle Dusepulchre, Vice-Chair of the EU Domestic Advisory Group for the EU-Vietnam FTA and Representative to the EU for the International Federation for Human Rights and Kamel Jendoubi, Honorary President of EuroMed Rights who spoke about Tunisia.