More than 300 civil society organizations (including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth or Corporate Europe Observatory) from 73 states have called on governments attending a meeting of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to reform the investor-State Dispute Settlement system (ISDS) in free trade agreements, in a public letter published on Tuesday 30 October.
This letter is being published as governments discuss ISDS reform from 29 October to 2 November in Vienna. However, the signatories, while welcoming the desire to reform the current system, fear that the debate will be “diverted” to maintain the status quo or to promote “half measures”.
According to the letter, the Multilateral Investment Court (see EUROPE 11985) does not address most of the fundamental flaws of ISDS, "because it seems designed to keep many of ISDS’s most damaging features (and flaws) intact”. For signatories, there is a need to address the “structural” problems of the investment treaty regime and discuss the termination and replacement of agreements.
To read the full letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s-bTcSJBRw1ShnQKGaxR8TSJ2TPd1Mrs/view (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)