Blame it on the WTO?: A Human Rights CritiqueA PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.oup.com/uk as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is often accused of, at best, not paying enough attention to human rights or, at worst, facilitating and perpetuating human rights abuses. This book weighs these criticisms and examines their validity, incorporating legal arguments as well as some economic and political science perspectives. After introducing the respective WTO and human rights regimes, and discussing their legal and normative relationship to each other, the book presents a detailed analysis of the main human rights concerns relating to the WTO. These include the alleged democratic deficit within the Organization and the impact of WTO rules on the right to health, labour rights, the right to food, and on questions of poverty and development. Given that some of the most important issues within the WTO concern its impact on poor people within developing States, the book asks whether rich States have an obligation to the people of poorer States to construct a fairer trading system that better facilitates the alleviation of poverty and development. Against this background, the book examines the current Doha round proposals as well as suggestions for reform of the WTO to make it more 'human rights-friendly'. |
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accessed 20 September adopted agricultural altered or transformed Appellate Body breach Chapter civil and political compulsory licensing Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Cultural Rights developing countries Doha round ensure European example export extraterritorial farmers free trade Furthermore GATS GATT global Ha-Joon Chang human rights law human rights obligations IAAKSTD Ibid ICCPR implementation imports imposed industry intellectual property international human rights international law issue labour rights LDCs medium negotiations NGOs NoDerivs licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 ofinternational ofthe Special Rapporteur open access version Oxfam Panel Pascal Lamy patent permits non-commercial reproduction pharmaceutical poverty promote properly cited protection provided the original publication distributed regarding regime relevant Report ofthe Special reproduction and distribution right to food right to health sanctions September 2010 Social and Cultural Special Rapporteur standards State’s subsidies tariffs text at notes tion treaties TRIPS World Bank World Trade Organization WTO doc WTO law WTO rules WTO’s