The Centre for Human Rights in Practice is undertaking a joint project with Mekelle University Center for Human Rights to identify the human rights and equality impacts of trade agreements in Ethiopia. The study aims to undertake a scoping study on the human rights impact of Ethiopian accession to the WTO and the Economic Partnership Agreement between African Caribbean and Pacific countries and the European Union.

The report is planned to be launched in Septmber.

Charra Tesfaye Terfassa, lecturer at Mekele University and the main author of the study said " We hope that the results of the scoping study will serve as the basis for a full scale study which we will seek funding for. In addition, this will the be the first equality and human rights impact assessment in relation to the trade agreements of a Least Developed Country. This study therefore hopes to offer insights in to how other studies of LDCs might be produced in the future."

Dr James Harrison, Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights in Practice (CHRP), commented "It is great to this kind of initiative taking place. We very much hope that this will be the start of a longer term relationship between our two Centres."

To read more about CHRP's work on EHRIAs, please clck here.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights' Report on the Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living published this week found that the UK Government has failed to adequately assess the cumulative impact of current reforms on the human rights of disabled people.

JCHR recommended that the Government should publish an integrated human rights and equality impact assessment of the likely cumulative impact of the proposals on independent living - based on the methodology which CHRP has been developing for the Scottish Human Rights' Commission. See our report here.

JCHR welcomed the commitment by the Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke, to consider the outcomes of the process being developed by the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission and "to see if it holds any useful lessons for Whitehall departments in the
way in which they assess the human rights impact of laws and policies." (see paras 102-115 of the report).

The Governance and Social Development Resource Centre has posted a synopsis of Centre co-director, James Harrison's article 'Measuring Human Rights: Reflections on the Current Practice and Future Potential of Human Rights Impact Assessment' on their website. The synopsis is available here.

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