Parliament is not being told the full human rights impact of post-Brexit international agreements and trade deals, a Parliamentary committee has warned.
In a report published this week, the Human Rights Committee, a cross-party committee of Peers and MPs, concludes that the scrutiny system is ‘not working’. For example, Committee members were concerned that the Minister for Human Rights, when giving evidence, did not know what human rights protections, if any, were included in the ‘in principle’ UKIsrael Agreement announced by Trade Secretary Liam Fox on 18 February.
Currently, international agreements such as bilateral free trade deals and extradition arrangements are negotiated at EU level and include specific clauses to protect human rights, which are scrutinised by committees in the European Parliament and the UK Parliament. Post-Brexit, this duty will be carried out by Westminster.
The Committee proposes a new approach where it is guaranteed that: standard human rights protections would be included in all agreements; human rights expertise would be embedded in the negotiating teams; and the Committee would receive a human rights memorandum for proposed international agreements once a draft text was available.
The report, ‘Human rights protections in international agreements’, also calls on the government to inform Parliament of all international agreements it intends to negotiate and to regularly report back. Harriet Harman MP, Chair of the Committee, said: ‘Human Rights should not be an “add-on” to any international trade agreement or treaty, but be embedded from the outset, drawing from the right expertise to ensure the highest standards.’
