The Role of Human Rights in Shaping International Regulatory Regimes

This paper explores the role of human rights in overcoming the fragmentation of international law and international governance. It explains why the current imbalance resulting from this fragmentation, in which undertakings under trade and investment treaties tend to take priority over the duty of States to progressively realize human rights, can only be overcome by reshaping the international economic environment. The 'Rome model', illustrated by the reform of the global governance of food security following the global food crisis in order to ensure that sectoral policies converge towards the realization of the right to food, provides a source of inspiration for the reforms that are needed. The challenge is not to imagine utopias: it is to define how we can make progress towards achieving them.