Human Rights Debates in the Lomé Convention: The Adoption of the Pons Grau Report at the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly (1992-1993)

Abstract

The Lomé Convention was a development cooperation agreement signed in 1975 between the European Community and the ACP group (Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific). Lomé built a unique institutional framework for debates over development and created common political institutions such as the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly, a multi-continental assembly involving European parliamentarians and ACP representatives. After the inclusion of human rights in Lomé in 1984, the Joint Assembly became the central stage for a heated debate over the universality of human rights and their relationship with development and democracy. The crucial point of this debate was the 1992-1993 Joint Assembly discussion regarding the report on human rights, democracy, and development drafted by Josep E. Pons Grau. The study analyses the difficult adoption of this report by the Assembly, which signalled a new approach to the issue of democracy and development and implied the demise of the political neutrality of Lomé.