Conference on Sustainability and Human Rights in Trade Policy

We are pleased to invite you to our conference “Sustainability and Human Rights in Trade Policy – EU Trade Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals” to be held on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 (09:30 – 16:45) at the Representation of Lower Saxony to the European Union in Brussels.

This conference is a joint effort of the German Institute for Human Rights, MISEREOR and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in cooperation with MEP Bernd Lange and the Representation of Lower Saxony to the European Union.

In 2015, the international community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to end poverty and achieve sustainability worldwide by the year 2030. Subsequently, the European Union adopted its new Trade for All strategy, which reflects the EU’s commitment to pursue a more responsible trade policy. This has given new momentum to the intense debate around the linkages between trade and social and environmental concerns, especially in the context of the EU's trade and investment agreements with Canada and the Economic Partnership Agreements. The question arises as to how trade policy instruments have to be designed and adjusted in order to meet the requirements of the SDGs as well as the EU’s human rights obligations under the Lisbon Treaty.

The conference will bring together experts from academia and politics to discuss implications for European trade policy, which derive from the SDGs and the ongoing debate on human rights. The intention of the conference is to identify the ways in which sustainability and human rights standards can be strengthened in the negotiation and implementation of the EU’s trade agreements.

Conference admission is free of charge. For registration to the conference, please send an e-mail to c@nference-brussels.eu until 14 June 2017.

Please find enclosed a tentative programme overview, for your information. You can also download the agenda here.