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Trade agreements have been evaluated in economic terms, but the impact of trade agreements is not limited to economic life. They have human rights dimensions in many aspects. For instance, trade agreements containing the TRIPS-plus provisos may affect the right to access to essential medicine, the right to food and more broadly the right to science and culture, which is protected by the Article 27(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Accordingly, the UN human rights bodies have tried to develop and propose human rights impact assessments (HRIA) of trade agreements (See The Future of Human RightsImpact Assessments of Trade Agreements).

A recent move in the National Assembly of South Korea to mandate the HRIA was influenced by the efforts of the UN human rights bodies.  Lawmaker Mr. Buh proposed a bill to amend the Law on the Treaty-Making Process and Implementation of Trade Agreements (Trade Process Act), which includes an amendment making compulsory the HRIA on every trade pact that is likely to be agreed upon with trade partners.  To negotiate a trade pact, the Trade Minister would need to request that the National Human Rights Commission conduct a HRIA, and to reflect in full the conclusion of the HRIA and the opinions of the National Human Rights Commission. In addition, HRIAs report would be submitted to the National Assembly biannually for the trade pacts which had already come into effect.

The bill contains many amendments, some of which are controversial, and it is too early to predict the fate of the bill (it was proposed just two weeks ago). However, I can say that the chance of the mandatory HRIA provision passing through the National Assembly is relatively high.

If you want to show your support of the bill, please contact me (hurips at gmail.com) or the Office of Mr. Buh (babydo at hanmail.net).