Professor Geneviève Dufour and two doctoral students – under the auspices of Professor Dufour’s University Research Chair on Sustainable, Responsible and Inclusive Trade Law – recently showcased the innovative new HumanIT project at a workshop hosted by Université Laval, bringing together scholars from across Canada who are developing large-scale research databases.
Held on April 13 and organized by Professors Jean-Frédéric Morin and Damian Raess of Université Laval, the workshop explored the opportunities and challenges associated with database development in academic research. Discussions focused on research design, data collection methodologies, funding, knowledge mobilization, and opportunities for collaboration among research teams.
Professor Dufour attended alongside uOttawa doctoral researchers Marianne Dionne and Pierre-Luc Morin. The team presented HumanIT (Human Rights in Trade), an ambitious research infrastructure project examining how human rights, including specific environment-related human rights, are incorporated into international trade and investment agreements.
Developed over the last several years, HumanIT is one of the flagship initiatives of Professor Dufour’s research chair program exploring the role of trade and investment treaties as tools for promoting non-commercial values. The database systematically analyzes the normative strength of human rights clauses found in regional trade agreements, providing researchers and policymakers with an unprecedented resource for studying the evolving relationship between trade, human rights, and environmental protection.
To date, the HumanIT database includes 432 trade agreements concluded between 1994 and 2025, and contains the manual coding of 5,625 clauses relating to 67 distinct human rights and environment-related human rights norms. Each clause has been assessed using three legal indicators – obligation, precision, and delegation – to evaluate its normative force and potential legal impact.
The project reflects the Chair’s broader mission to examine whether, and how, international trade law can contribute to advancing human rights, environmental protection, and social inclusion. As governments increasingly turn to trade instruments to pursue public policy objectives beyond economic liberalization, initiatives such as HumanIT provide valuable tools for understanding these emerging legal trends.
The HumanIT database will become publicly accessible through a dedicated website currently under development by the Chair, with a launch anticipated in Fall 2026. Once available, the platform will offer researchers, policymakers, students, and civil society organizations a unique window into the growing integration of human rights considerations within international trade law.