UN expert says ISDS system undermines democracy

Alfred de Zayas, the UN independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, has said that the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism has devastating implications for the respect of human rights around the world.

ISDS provisions or their derivatives are included in trade agreements such as the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is currently being negotiated between the US and the countries of the EU, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has been provisionally agreed between the US and 11 other countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam).

Writing in The Guardian newspaper yesterday, de Zayas said that, since its inception, the UN had put on the world stage not only the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also legally binding instruments, including 10 core human rights conventions and countless declarations and resolutions.

But the ISDS mechanism threatened the existing system of justice, the concept of checks and balances, and the very core of the rule of law. ‘Its implications for the respect of human rights around the world are devastating,’ he wrote. ‘If it is allowed to continue to exist, it will hijack the dreams of a just international order born out of the Second World War. It must be abolished because it undermines fundamental principles of the UN, state sovereignty, democracy and the rule of law. Far from contributing to human rights and development, the international investment regime and ISDS have resulted in growing inequality among states and within them.’

The full article is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/16/philip-morris-uruguay-tobacco-isds-human-rights.