From CP-Reuters
GENEVA (CP) - A Canadian and a Kenyan law professor are calling on World Trade Organization panels to put international human rights laws above trade rules when resolving disputes among its members.
The two, experts in international trade law and human rights, made the appeal Thursday while introducing their study on how the WTO can help protect the human, economic and social rights of ordinary people in the era of globalization.
Toronto-born Robert Howse, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, is one of the report's authors.
He said several current trade disputes, including one that involves Canada, could end by encouraging human rights violations.
Canada has challenged the European Union over a French ban on asbestos imports, arguing that the measure violated WTO open trading rules. A panel ruling is expected in June after 1 1/2 years of deliberations.
"It is well known that asbestos is a life-threatening substance that has killed thousands of Canadians over the years," said Howse.
He warned that if the WTO panel agrees with Canada, "It would become in many instances very difficult for governments to implement their obligations to protect the lives of their citizens."
Ottawa has argued that the asbestos it exports is safe and that there is no health basis for the French ban.
The study, commissioned by the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, was issued at the end of the annual six-week session of the UN Human Rights Commission.
The 23-page report echoed many other recent critiques of the Geneva-based WTO, where panel rulings in disputes have to be approved by the body's 136 member countries.
The study described the WTO as isolated, secretive and undemocratic in its decision-making.
It called for routine acceptance by disputes panels of submissions from non-governmental organizations explaining the non-trade impact of potential rulings.
Warren Allmand, a former Canadian member of Parliament, now heads the Montreal-based centre for human rights, commonly known as Rights & Democracy.
"The growing disparity between rich and poor shows that increasing flows of international trade cannot, on their own, address the very urgent problem of poverty and underdevelopment in the world today," Allmand said of the report.
"We need to look at development as a human rights issue," he added.
The report elaborates on this theme, arguing that social and economic development cannot occur in the absence of human rights.
Makau Mutua, the Kenyan professor who co-authored the report with Howse, says much of human rights law is already included in international treaties. Therefore, these treaties are binding on countries, he says.
"There ought to be no conflict between trade law and human rights law," said Mutua, who is director of the Human Rights Center at the University of New York at Buffalo, and chairman of Kenya's Human Rights Commission.
"But when there is, human rights law should trump all other international law accords and certainly take precedence over trade law.":
