ISDS Case Map
sovereignty | democracy
Fundamental decisions for the lives of nearly a tenth of the world's population are taken on their behalf without even informing them. What democracy, what rights?
A new report, 'Mafia investments against Honduras', examines the worrying situation in which the Central American country finds itself in the face of claims brought by transnational corporations before international arbitration tribunals.
The dream of Próspera, founded by a US corporation off the coast of Honduras, was to escape government control. The Honduran government wants it gone but Próspera filed an astronomical $10.775 billion lawsuit against the state.
A total of 37 organizations and 29 people conveyed their urge to President Joko Widodo via open letter to stop negotiations between Indonesia - European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EU CEPA). This demand was conveyed after Indonesia completed the 19th round of negotiations on 1-5 July 2024 behind closed doors.
Imagine a scenario where a private company effectively creates and controls its own jurisdiction within a sovereign country. This company introduces its own currency, enacts laws, and establishes courts, prisons, police forces and even intelligence services.
Dispute settlements in international investment law protect the rights of companies. However, they suppress the voice of local communities, as Stephanie Triefus found in her PhD research.
Foreign investors wanting to protect their gains under the controversial new law could hold the country to ransom by threatening a dispute. As a result, they would constrain New Zealand’s democratic ability to exercise its sovereignty, and to protect te Tiriti rights.
In a referendum, Ecuador voted to keep its constitutional ban on using international arbitration and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms.
On 21 April 2024, the government of Daniel Noboa is holding a referendum in Ecuador to amend the country's constitution and, in particular, to reactivate the dangerous investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
Thirty years after NAFTA came into effect in 1994, the economic data suggests a somber conclusion: The three countries’ working classes are worse off today than they were before
