From Trade to Transformation: Advancing the Right to Development through AfCFTA and AHRMs

Background 

​​

This session will explore how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can advance the Right to Development (RTD) by embedding responsible business conduct (RBC) and human rights into its implementation, with support from African Human Rights Mechanisms (AHRMs). It will assess challenges and opportunities for aligning AfCFTA with human rights, focusing on collaboration between the AfCFTA Secretariat, AHRMs, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), AU member states and other stakeholders.

 

The session will open with a presentation of preliminary research findings showing how stakeholders across the continent are implementing AfCFTA through a rights-based approach. These findings will frame the subsequent panel discussion on two key themes: how human rights principles are being incorporated into the AfCFTA, and what practical measures stakeholders are taking to implement AfCFTA through a human rights lens.

 

The discussion will start with a focus on the AfCFTA's potential to fully realise the right to development across Africa, strengthen regional integration, and foster people-centred, sustainable development. A central theme will be examining how economic integration and economic growth under AfCFTA can deliver genuinely inclusive, equitable and sustainable development outcomes for all Africans.

 

Particular attention will be given to practical strategies for embedding human rights principles and safeguards in AfCFTA's implementation and strengthening cooperation between its institutions, African Union bodies, national governments, private sector and civil society organisations. The session will address existing implementation gaps while highlighting emerging best practices and exploring innovative approaches to ensure AfCFTA fulfils its transformative promise.

 

By bringing together diverse perspectives, this session aims to identify concrete ways to maximise AfCFTA's positive impact on development outcomes while safeguarding fundamental rights across all member states. The discussion will seek to balance ambitious vision with practical implementation strategies, recognising both the agreement's potential and the challenges involved in realising it.

​

Key Objectives
 

• To raise awareness and bridge knowledge gaps regarding the evolving relationship between trade and human rights, highlighting stakeholder roles in implementing AfCFTA through a rights-based approach grounded on the Right to Development and Responsible Business Conduct.

• To identify practical opportunities for incorporating right to development principles and responsible business conduct into AfCFTA's implementation framework to ensure inclusive, equitable and sustainable outcomes.

• To enhance the integration of human rights within Africa's trade ecosystem and contribute to international discourse on sustainable economic transformation through Responsible Business Conduct.

• To examine governmental and corporate responsibilities in ensuring AfCFTA promotes social justice, equity and inclusive development outcomes, in line with Responsible Business Conduct standards and the Right to Development.

• To foster multi-stakeholder dialogue (governments, the private sector, civil society) on achieving people-centred, participatory development under AfCFTA's framework, by embedding Right to Development Principles and Responsible Business Conduct in the AfCFTA’s implementation.

​

Guiding Questions
 

• What initiatives are being taken to implement the AfCFTA and its protocols through a human rights lens, and how do they uphold the Right to Development?

• How is coordination between AfCFTA and AHRMs being strengthened to embed human rights and the Right to Development principles into the AfCFTA’s implementation, and what specific roles should each institution play to achieve shared objectives?

• In what ways can AfCFTA Protocol on Investment be leveraged to promote Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) and ensure that trade and investment lead to equitable, rights-based development outcomes across the continent?

• What practical lessons can be drawn from existing regional initiatives that successfully integrate human rights – including the Right to Development, as well as Responsible Business Conduct considerations into trade or investment agreements?

• How can the AfCFTA’s implementation be guided by the Right to Development to ensure that no one is left behind?

 

Background to the Discussion

​

The development and operationalization of AfCFTA already mark a significant milestone in integrating human rights and sustainability provisions across African supply chains—catalysing progress in corporate accountability and respect for human rights. However, a comprehensive integration of the Right to Development (RTD) principles into its implementation remains essential to ensure that trade liberalisation translates into equitable development outcomes for all, leaving no one behind. Drawing also on the recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, in which he examined the role of business in realising the right to development,and provided a road map to harness the positive contribution of business and minimize the adverse impacts of business activities on this right, the session will examine how business can contribute meaningfully to the realization of the right to development by  embedding Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and African Union policy frameworks, and by going beyond the “do no harm” approach. This transformative approach aligns closely with the objectives of integrating RBC and the right to development within AfCFTA implementation.

 

Examining AfCFTA’s potential to advance the right to development also calls for a broader assessment of how the AfCFTA and the AHRMs co-evolve and impact the prospects for sustainable development in Africa. Important work has already been done on the human rights impacts of the AfCFTA (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2022) as well as the role of relevant human rights stakeholders in AfCFTA implementation (NANHRI Guidance, 2023). The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACmHPR) has laid out key priorities regarding AfCFTA in its Resolution on BHR (2023). Building on these, the session will further gauge the transformative potential of the AfCFTA by examining how the AfCFTA Secretariat, and African Human Rights Mechanisms can coordinate and collaborate to operationalize RTD and RBC commitments. This includes monitoring compliance with RBC obligations under the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment (2024) to ensure that investment and trade flows deliver on improvements of livelihoods, equity, and sustainability.  Based on the preliminary findings of a ‘State of Play’ assessment being conducted by KAS and RWI, the session will enable reflections on the implementation of AfCFTA through a human rights and developmental lens and of the political economy of economic integration, built on RBC and equitable growth.

 

Additional background documents

​

• Human Rights and the African Continental Free Trade Area: Taking Stock and Navigating the Way Forward

• Surya Deva (Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development), UN Doc. A/HRC/78/160, Role of Business in Realizing the Right to Development, May 2023, paras. 12–17, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a78160-role-business-realizing-right-development-report-special.