Rethinking Investment Treaties: Lessons for policy-making
Leading experts from IISD, academia, and international institutions explored how investment treaties can be redesigned to address the urgent issues facing the world today–and to support genuine sustainable development. The discussion was based on IISD's new report, Rethinking Investment Treaties: A Roadmap.
If we were building the investment treaty regime from scratch today, what policy problems should the regime seek to solve, and how should it contribute to solving them?
This was the question at the heart of this IISD webinar on international investment treaties. Instead of scrutinizing existing flaws in existing treaties, the webinar aimed to guide policy-makers on how to reevaluate investment treaties to tackle the burning environmental, social, and climate change issues of the 21st century.
The webinar was based on a fresh report from IISD, Rethinking Investment Treaties, which sets out a detailed roadmap for how the international investment treaty system can be redesigned to accelerate—rather than obstruct—genuine sustainable development.
The report authors, Josef Ostřanský and Jonathan Bonnitcha, and leading experts from academia and international institutions discussed the report's key findings and further unpacked how investment treaties could be redesigned to improve international cooperation on investment governance, align financial flows with the Paris Agreement, ensure that host states benefit from investment projects, and ensure strong human rights and environmental standards in investment projects.
Read the first paper in our Rethinking series, Rethinking National Investment Laws.
Speakers
Alessandra Mistura, policy analyst, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Chantal Ononaiwu, director of external trade, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat
Dafina Atanasova, economic affairs officer, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
J. Benton Heath, associate professor of Law, Temple University
Jonathan Bonnitcha, senior associate, IISD
Josef Ostřanský, policy advisor, IISD
Joshua Paine, senior lecturer, University of Bristol
Roslyn Ng'eno, Senior Investment Expert, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat
Yuanita Ruchyat, senior officer for investment, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat
The discussion was moderated by Suzy H. Nikièma, Director of Investment, IISD.