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Amnesty International has recently published a collection of articles entitled Human rights, trade and investment matters. The anthology takes various perspectives on the links – both downward pressures and potential levers for improvements – between capital flows, in the form of trade agreements and institutional finance, and human rights, focusing on labour rights in particular.
The publication firstly focuses on the role of financial institutions in shaping standards, in particular looking at project finance as a lever to raise standards. In particular, one article looks at the impact of the Equator Principles on participating commercial banks, asserting that while some of the banks are at last beginning to take human rights seriously, Equator Banks still commonly lack expertise in social risk assessment. Several other articles look at workers’ rights in trade and investment agreements, illustrating how trade and investment agreements can become effective instruments for improving workers’ rights, provided that governments have the political will to make this happen. The example of the US-Cambodia Trade Agreement is cited, with the article arguing that international standards on labour rights can be reinforced via bilateral trade agreements. The final section focuses on the legal accountability of companies for the impacts of their investment.
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