Protecting Human Rights in a Global Economy

Both trade and human rights have been codified in highly developed legal regimes, negotiated by governments since the end of World War II. These two legal regimes have developed however in isolation from one another. Both trade law and human rights law narrow the range of policy options that are available to governments. And yet, it seems that the question of whether the two legal regimes are contradictory has rarely been asked. This document works through some of the challenges posed by human rights instruments to trade law. It details a number of instances where the World Trade Organization has the ability to take human rights into account.