An overview of human rights instruments to raise concerns about trade and investment polices.

The promise of human rights posits the legal recognition of
the de facto and de jure equality of every individual human
being, irrespective of their gender, race, ethnicity or other personal or group identifiers. This simple idea was premised on the need to ensure respect for communities by
protecting their rights against encroachment, and in seeking
ways to promote their different identities should there
be agreement to seek such protection within the group.
The location of the discourse of human rights within the
discipline of law was important: it articulated the need for
justice over order and suggested the need for a fulcrum
of a legal formulation of equality and non-discrimination.
Sixty years after the passage of the Universal Declaration
for Human Rights the realization of this dream of equality
remains distant, which could be attributed to an overt
emphasis on the civil and political components of human
rights rather than an all-encompassing indivisible approach
that focuses on the economic, social and cultural
alongside the civil and political aspects. At the international level, human rights have an added value: they are the axiological horizon of rules governing relationships
between international subjects. The lack of global solidarity towards their general realization is reflected in the paucity of structures and political will to effectively combat global inequalities, fight extreme poverty and set up a fairer international economic order. Only the international regime of human rights offers some binding international standards to infuse ethical values in the relationships regulated by international law.