The OHCHR Invokes Human Rights at the WTO

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) invoked international human rights law in an effort to alter global trade rulemaking in the WTO Doha Round. OHCHR officials were concerned that WTO rules were inadequate to protect the human rights of vulnerable populations from the potential adverse effects of agricultural trade liberalization. Although WTO members preferred to keep discussions of human rights out of the negotiations, the OHCHR sought to steer global trade rules toward greater alignment with international human rights standards. In doing so, the OHCHR took extraordinary and unconventional political action, including making unsolicited proposals directly to trade ministers and creating uncertainty about the consistency of WTO rules with international human rights law. I show that the OHCHR’s intervention contributed to the creation of new draft WTO rules to protect food security, incorporating safeguards for vulnerable groups.