European Union, the GSP and a 'serious and systematic violation' of human rights principles?

This post follows through from my article today in the New Age newspaper
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Article 25 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights states:

Every citizen shall have the right ....
(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

The UN Human Right Committee is the body established to monitor state's compliance with the covenant, and it produces General Statements which are rulings on legal interpretation of articles in the covenant. In 1996 it published such a statement on the meaning of Article 25. This states, inter alia, that the right to vote

‘lies at the core of a democratic government based on the consent of the people’ and that states must take steps to ensure that ‘citizens have an effective opportunity to enjoy’ it.