Investor State Dispute Settlement and Human Rightss
Gujarat National Law University, India.
Volume III, Issue V, 2020
While there are a number of international investment agreements (IIAs) signed till today but maximum of them fail to provide guidance as to how human rights, environmental protection should be included in and addressed in context of investment protection, protecting the right of the people of the host- state. Arbitral tribunal have been for a long time faced disputes which touch upon these issues or sometimes the disputes directly concern issues like environmental protection and human rights, they are still reluctant to address the investor-state dispute with respect to these matters. And due to this there are many instances where the human rights and environmental protection has been compromised to give levy to the investor at the cost of the rights of others. The relationship between human rights and trade is one of the central issues in the 21st century.
Investor- state agreements are considered venture and property insurance and that is why the investors do not want to sign an agreement which hampers their free working environment just like including human rights as it in some or the other way restrict certain act as we can observe in the Ethyl case.
Keywords: Human Rights, Dispute settlement, ICSID, ISDS, BIT, most-favoured nation, United Nations