Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

In May the European Commission concluded negotiations for the EU Multi Party
Trade Agreement with Colombia and Peru. During the negotiations, the UK led
efforts within the EU to ensure that a legally binding and robust human rights clause
was included in the text of the agreement. The agreement will go through legal
scrutiny in 2011.
Generalised System of Preferences
The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is one of the most important
instruments available to the EU in linking human rights with trade. There are three
tiers of benefits: the standard GSP, the special arrangements for sustainable
development and good governance (GSP+) and the Everything But Arms (EBA)
initiative.
Under the GSP Regulation, the European Commission may launch an investigation if
there is evidence of grave and systematic violations of the international human rights
and labour rights conventions cited in the GSP Regulation. If the conventions are
judged to have been breached, all GSP arrangements may be temporally withdrawn.
Countries where privileges have been withdrawn are encouraged to improve their
human rights situation, with a view to renewing the arrangements. To date, standard
GSP has been withdrawn on only two occasions: in Burma in 1997 due to the
systematic use of forced labour; and in Belarus in 2007 for the widespread violation
of trade union rights.
GSP+ offers additional incentive arrangements to developing countries which have
ratified and effectively implemented 27 core international conventions on human
rights, labour rights, environment and good governance principles and allows them
to export goods to the EU at preferential tariff rates. There are currently 15 GSP+
beneficiary countries. GSP+ privileges can be withdrawn in the event of a serious
breach of human rights in the beneficiary country, as well as if the beneficiary
country’s domestic legislation is amended in such a way that it no longer
incorporates the obligations of the relevant international conventions.
Sri Lanka had been a beneficiary of GSP+ since 2006. In October 2008, the
European Commission initiated an investigation into Sri Lanka’s implementation of
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