Applying the Human Rights Framework to Economic Policy: Insights from an Impact Assessment of Services Trade Liberalisation in Mauritius

Abstract

This article sets out the methodology and findings of a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) for Mauritius. It presents analysis of possible impacts of services trade liberalisation and deregulation on the right to water, on labour rights and on labour migration. By examining impacts of trade-related policies through the lens of human rights law, this article brings to the fore how an HRIA can strengthen trade policy-making, and how it can provide African negotiators and other stakeholders with legal and conceptual arguments to strengthen their positions in economic negotiating contexts that are often highly complex. The article is a contribution to the literature in that it provides insights into the underexplored area of human rights impacts of liberalisation of trade in services, and in that it illustrates through specific examples how the human rights analytical framework can be applied to services trade negotiations in other fora, and to economic policy more broadly.