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THE UN SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE APPEARS STUCK IN THE PAST  
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Manuel Pérez-Rocha
September 16, 2024
Inequality.org
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_ A draft action plan would perpetuate an international investment
regime that grants corporations excessive power to undermine public
interest regulations. _

The United Nations Buildings, Wikimedia.org

 

The United Nations is hosting world leaders on September 22 and 23 for
a “Summit of the Future.” Unfortunately, the draft action plan
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full of lofty language and some good intentions, does not challenge
the neoliberal model or corporate control of the global economy.

On the contrary, it proposes, for example, to “facilitate access of
developing countries to the WTO and promote trade and investment
liberalization.”

It’s astounding that this plan, which is supposed to serve as the
basis for an inter-governmental agreement, is so stuck in the past.
For decades now, social movements and elected officials in many
countries have become increasingly opposed to trade and investment
rules that grant enormous privileges and power to transnational
corporations.

In many ways, these old rules directly contradict the UN summit’s
overall goal of creating “a world that is safe, sustainable,
peaceful, inclusive, just, equal, orderly, and resilient.”

They also make a mockery of the summit’s stated commitment to the UN
Charter principle of “full respect for the sovereign equality of all
Member States” and the principle of “equal rights and
self-determination of peoples.”

Just take a look at how the natural resource extractive industries
have used the existing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system
to undercut national sovereignty and sustainability and to foment
conflict. The mining sector, in particular, has used this system,
enforced through almost 3,000 treaties, to sue governments in
supranational tribunals, bypassing national legal systems.

The vast majority of ISDS claims are directed against countries in the
so-called “global south,” and most suits are targeted at Latin
American countries. ISDS allow corporations to suppress the opposition
of local and indigenous communities fighting for their territorial and
environmental rights. When governments respond in favor of communities
resisting mining projects, companies often use these lawsuits to
blackmail governments into backing down and granting permits for
environmentally destructive projects or pay “compensation” for the
loss of expected corporate profits.

Investment treaties even include “full protection and security”
clauses that give companies the right to demand that governments
repress communities that oppose their mining projects. In Guatemala,
for instance, the Nevada-based mining company claims that the
government failed to provide access to a mining site blocked by
indigenous protesters, and is suing the country for more than $400
million.
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The increase in demand for minerals for euphemistically named
“green” energy transitions means that governments will be at
greater risk of facing multi-million dollar lawsuits, as these
processes are generating social reactions worldwide. The Transnational
Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies, and other organizations
recently published extensive information on mining (and other) company
lawsuits against governments in an “ISDS-Tracker
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Panama is facing a particularly scandalous example of these ISDS
lawsuits. The people of this country have risen up against the
Canadian mining company First Quantum and in November 2023 succeeded
in having Panama’s Supreme Court declare
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mine license unconstitutional. This led the Panamanian National
Assembly to approve a mining moratorium law
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According to reports, First Quantum has sued Panama for the unpayable
sum of $30 billion at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris,
and has threatened another $20 billion arbitration under the
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement.

Other transnational mining companies affected by the cancellation of
licenses have followed First Quantum’s example and, in total, Panama
faces ISDS claims for at least $57 billion
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GDP.

As we demonstrate in our recent report “ISDS: A portrait of
transnational power in Mexico,
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the investment protection regime, and its consequences,” Mexico is
facing lawsuits totaling at least $13 billion, with more than half of
them related to mining. This figure is partial, as it corresponds only
to claims at the World Bank’s International Centre for the
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which publishes information
about them. On the other hand, the International Chamber of Commerce,
where Panama has been sued, and other supranational tribunals do not
publish information on cases.

The ISDS system has been dismantled among some rich countries. For
instance, the United States and Canada eliminated it among themselves
in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The European Union
eliminated it among its member states and is exiting the Energy
Charter Treaty
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which also allowed these investor-state suits.

If world leaders who are coming to the UN Summit on September 22 and
23 are serious about protecting the future of humanity and the planet,
they should dismantle this anti-democratic investment system (ISDS)
for all countries.

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MANUEL PÉREZ-ROCHA IS AN _Associate Fellow at the Institute for
Policy Studies [[link removed]]__ and an Associate at the
Transnational Institute [[link removed]]._

* UN
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* Global Struggles
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* corporate power
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