Abstract

ARROYO VARGAS, Roxana. Clippings: On the difficult relationship between bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements and investment and human rights. E&c [online]. 2017, vol.1, n.4, pp.105-124. ISSN 2477-9245.  https://doi.org/10.37228/estado_comunes.v1.n4.2017.43.

The hereby article critically addresses the possible tensions and consequences that exist between free trade agreements and bilateral and multilateral investment and human rights, as well as their impact on the international order, using as epistemological sources feminism and critical theory of human rights. It is impossible not to mention the social movements' questioning about the possible responsibilities of transnational corporations, existing conflicts with international arbitrations, the threats to human rights defenders and the criminalization of movements for defense against extractive companies.

In addition, the consequences in relation to fundamental aspects such as food sovereignty when farmers, due to the impact on livelihoods, are destroyed by free trade and the absence of States that pose protection measures, intellectual property, social policies, the liberation of domestic markets, and their consequences on the environment and health. This is to mention some of the possible scenarios that alert us to the direct effects on women, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, workers, migrants, among other subjects who suffer discrimination and differential impacts on their standard of living as a result of these free trade agreements.

Undoubtedly these agreements go beyond trade, or perhaps trade cannot be understood without the incorporation of standards built at the level of Public International Law for the subjects of international law, the international community and the legal ethical framework of human rights that places peoples and nature at the center of economic relations. We have a question left that is shared with many authors and which is relevant: is foreign direct investment possible while guaranteeing human rights?

Keywords : Human Rights; free trade agreements; gender perspective; Public International Law; Social Movement; access to justice..

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