Report: the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) in a human rights perspective

Abstract

The negotiations leading up to the continental free trade area (CFTA) present a unique opportunity to improve the livelihoods of millions of African people. The jobs and wealth that the CFTA can bring about have the potential to contribute significantly to alleviating poverty, creating jobs and promoting equality. The CFTA is more than a trade agreement. Its wide scope covering trade in goods, trade in services, investment, competition policy and intellectual property rights, provides a platform to facilitate the inclusive structural transformation of African countries, contributing to the attainment of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the global Agenda 2030. A human rights approach is particularly important today, as the world witnesses rising skepticism towards trade and investment liberalization. This skepticism has been driven to a large extent by peoples’ concerns that the benefits of trade and globalization have not been distributed fairly, and underlines the need to avoid such a scenario in Africa. This assessment applies human rights standards and tools to assist in identifying human rights concerns in the negotiation, design, implementation and monitoring of the CFTA, with a view to supporting the creation of a robust agreement that is responsive to the needs of the continent’s peoples.