English Français

Key Message

Without investment, sustainable development is impossible. Well planned, high quality foreign investment in developed and developing countries can help make current economic practices more sustainable. Inappropriate investment, however, can undermine communities and the environment, as well as domestic development strategies. IISD examines how the rules and institutions that govern international investment flows can be improved so as to help developing countries, in particular, attract the sort of investment that promotes sustainable development.

Team


Mark Halle· Mark Halle
Director - Trade and Investment, and European Representative
Aaron Cosbey· Aaron Cosbey
Associate and Senior Climate Change and Trade Advisor
Fiona Marshall· Fiona Marshall
Associate
Howard Mann· Howard Mann
Associate & Senior International Law Advisor
Mahnaz Malik· Mahnaz Malik
Associate
Rachael Muller· Rachael Muller
Programme Administrator

Foreign Investment for SD

A global agenda for change in international investment law, policy and institutions

What's New in Foreign Investment for SD?

  • International Investment Agreements, Business and Human Rights: Key Issues and Opportunities (PDF - 415 kb)
    The paper was prepared for Prof. John Ruggie, UN Special Representative to the Secretary General for Business and Human Rights. It explores the full range of issues that arise between international investment agreements, business and human rights, focusing on the key duties of states to protect and promote human rights, and the responsibilities of business to respect human rights.

    Do investment agreements help or hurt the pursuit of these roles?
    The paper also takes a first look at the relationship of Host Government Agreements to international investment treaties in the human rights context. The paper concludes the existing investment treaty regime does nothing to either enhance the relationship between business and human rights, or to ensure investors fulfill their responsibility to respect human rights. Moreover, it can negatively impact the duty of host states to protect and promote human rights. However, the paper notes this need not be the case, and suggests specific approaches to enhancing this relationship, and to embed human rights values into the international investment law regime.

  • UNCITRAL Working Group rebuffs calls for greater transparency in investor-State arbitration (PDF - 227 kb)
    The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group on Arbitration has set back calls by many states and non-governmental organizations to discuss introducing transparency requirements into international rules governing arbitrations brought by private foreign investors against states.

    IISD expressed its deep disappointment at the efforts of some governments to block the inclusion of transparency provisions in the revised Rules, following the UNCITRAL Working Group's session in New York, February 4 to 8, 2008.

    The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules are the second-most used rules for arbitrations by foreign investors against states. However, the Rules were drafted 30 years ago with private commercial disputes in mind and do not address the public interest implications of investor-state disputes.

    IISD and Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) have issued a joint press release (PDF - 59 kb), as well as a joint paper (PDF - 227 kb) showing how the UNCITRAL Rules can be simply amended to address the needs of investor-state arbitrations.

  • Investment Treaty News: 2006 Year in Review
    This publication offers an overview of notable developments in relation to International Investment Agreements in 2006. In addition to summarizing Investment Treaty News' reporting for 2006, the Year in Review also presents the results of a series of interviews with IIA practitioners and arbitration institutions. A key finding of these interviews is that the number of IIA arbitrations initiated in 2006 was at least 36, with the majority of such investor-state lawsuits taking place outside of the well-known International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

IISD has been breaking new ground on investment and sustainable development issues since 1998.

Investment is critical for sustainable development, which requires fundamental changes in how we produce, distribute and dispose of goods. Today this kind of change must come mainly through investment in new technologies and new processes that can replace unsustainable practices. In developing countries, where domestic sources of capital are scarce, foreign direct investment plays a significant role.

But not all investment leads to sustainable development, and not all of the global rules and institutions relating to international investment have been conceived through a sustainable development lens. IISD's work on investment and sustainable development focuses on this critical linkage, and provides new approaches to ensure that investment law and policy will make a positive contribution to sustainable development.

Contents