“In hurrying trade deal with Vietnam, the EU is bypassing its human rights obligations”, 10 Aug 2015

FIDH and…Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today that if finalised without conducting a human-rights impact assessment (HRIA) and without introducing the necessary human rights safeguards, the EU-Vietnam Free trade and investment agreement (FTA) would be concluded in flagrant violation of EU law…“Without strong human rights safeguards, the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement is likely to cause an increase in human rights abuses in Vietnam,” [VCHR President Vo Van Ai] said. Introducing human rights safeguards would address significant shortcomings in trade agreements, weighing in the human rights of European citizens and those of the Vietnamese people over business interests. Such safeguards could include indicators measuring the impact of the agreement, introduce redress and accountability mechanisms for affected communities, and organise a human and people centred development over business interests, notably in remediating the deficient and unbalanced investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms… In an open letter published today, FIDH and VCHR call upon the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to revisit the conclusion of the negotiations by the EC…