65 Michel Pimbert
Photo: Michel Pimbert
52
Box 5. International Investment
Agreements boost corporate power
Farmer exchange for mutual learning among
representatives of indigenous and peasant federations
from Peru, Indonesia, India and Iran meeting in a village
in South India.
embedding power-equalising research in
local organisations and the federations they
form usually better ensures that:
• the right questions are asked from the
communities’ point of view;
• there is more shared ownership over the
research process and its outcomes; and
• that the capacities and assets of local
organisations are enhanced (human, social,
natural, physical, financial assets).
These are important safeguards for
truly participatory research.
New energy and creativity are often
released when different federations and
networks of local organisations learn to
better communicate and work together in
producing knowledge for positive change
and equity. Many such federations of the
rural and urban poor are well placed to
promote non-state-led forms of deliberative democracy aimed at making local,
national and global institutions accountable to citizens – particularly those most
excluded from decision-making. Indeed,
federations of local organisations increasingly seek to have a greater say in the
governance of environment and development – including R&D. In so doing, they
challenge liberal understandings in which
citizenship is viewed as a set of rights and
responsibilities granted by the State.
Instead, citizenship in the context of locally
determined development is claimed, and
International Investment Agreements (IIAs) such
as the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and
investment chapters in the Free Trade Agreements
(FTAs) give transnational corporations (TNCs)
extraordinary rights without binding obligations.
They allow TNCs to bypass local and national laws
and courts. If public policy is against their interests,
TNCs can sue sovereign States for millions of
dollars before private international arbitral
tribunals associated with the International Centre
for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and
the United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and others. It is noteworthy
that there is no similar international tribunal
where governments or citizens can bring TNCs to
justice when their activities violate social, labour,
human and environmental rights or when they act
in breach of public policy requirements. This has
led to calls for an alternative international
investment framework that is based on
democratic principles and prioritises public
interests over private profits.
See: http://tinyurl.com/AlternateIM
Full URL: http://justinvestment.org/2011/11/callfor-an-alternative-investment-model/
rights are realised, through the agency and
actions of people themselves.
Legal redress as safeguard against abuses
Power-equalising research on biodiversity,
rights and culture is increasingly taking
place in a context in which transnational
corporations (TNCs) and investors are
engaging in international arbitration to
protect their rights as investors. For the
first time in international law, large corporations are being given the right to sue
governments. This trend is greatly facilitated by new International Investment
Agreements (Box 5).
Indigenous and local communities
engaged in co-enquiry need to develop
safeguards against such abuses of power
and must be able to seek legal redress when
their rights are violated. But the ability of
victims of corporate and State power to
enforce their right to food and other rights
(e.g. equitable ABS for indigenous knowledge on seeds and medicinal plants) has