This report builds, among others, on prior work undertaken by the Working Group examining various dimensions of the interface between IIAs and human rights.

1. Connecting the dots

In its October 2017 report to the UN General Assembly (A/72/162), the Working Group highlighted that "effective remedies for business-related human rights abuses could be sought in diverse settings … and that the negative impact of … dispute settlement under trade or investment agreements" on access to effective remedies under the UNGPs should be managed. The report further recommended: "States should conduct an inclusive and transparent human rights impact assessment before concluding trade-investment agreements and insert explicit substantive human rights provisions in those agreements to preserve adequate policy space to discharge their human rights obligations."

2. Roundtable

On 18 October 2017, the Working Group and the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) co-hosted a roundtable in New York on "Impacts of the Investment Regime on Access to Justice". An outcome paper of the roundtable is now available.

3. Blog

A three-prong approach has been suggested to states in the following blogpost to ensure that IIAs do not result in asymmetrical empowerment of investors or inequitable and unsustainable economic development: Managing States' "Fatal Attraction" to International Investment Agreements

4. Letter to states

In March 2019, the Working Group joined other UN experts to write a letter to states to raise concerns about the ongoing work of the Working Group III on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Reform.

5. Sessions at the UN Forum

The Working Group, in collaboration with other partners, has organized several sessions at the annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights to stimulate discussion about challenges and emerging good practices to manage those challenges in the context of IIAs and human rights:

• 2020 Forum: Harnessing international investment agreements to prevent human rights abuses
• 2019 Forum: Aligning international investment policy and practice with the pillars of "Protect, Respect, Remedy" - what States should do
• 2018 Forum: Crowd-drafting: Designing a Human Rights-Compatible International Investment Agreement
  In response to the "crowd-drafting" call for a session at the 2018 Forum, the following proposals were received:
  • Submission by: International Institute for Sustainable Development
  • Submission by: Alessandra Arcuri, Francesco Montanaro and Federica Violi. Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Arbitration for all
  • Submission by: Alessandra Arcuri, Francesco Montanaro and Federica Violi. Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Substitute investor-State arbitration with public alternative complaint mechanisms (PACoMS)
  • Submission by: Yulia Levashova LL.M. and prof. dr. Tineke Lambooy LL.M. Nyenrode Business University, Breukelen, The Netherlands
  • Submission by: by Tara Van Ho, Anil Yilmaz Vastardis and Luis Felipe Yanes. University of Essex. Essex Business & Human Rights Project
  • Submission by: Dr Daria Davitti (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Law, Lund University; Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, School of Law); Ms Kathryn Greenman (PhD Candidate, Amsterdam Center for International Law, University of Amsterdam; Fellow, Melbourne Law School); Dr Ntina Tzouvala (ARC Laureate Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Fellow, Melbourne Law School)
  • Submission by: Dr. Edward Guntrip (Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex). A Host State Human Rights Counterclaim in Investment Arbitration
  • Submission by: Mekonnen Seid, (PhD Candidate, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong). International Investment Agreements and the Obligations of Investors to Respect Human Rights

• 2017 Forum: Realizing access to remedy: Implications of the international investment regime
• 2016 Forum: Integrating human rights in international investment agreements

2015 Forum: State implementation of the UN Guiding Principles in the context of investment policy: areas for focus and examples of implementation

Methodology

The Working Group convened several virtual consultations in different parts of the world to inform the report. A summary of these consultations will be posted here in due course.

• A consultation for Europe, 10 December 2020, co-organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and the University of Essex Business and Human Rights Project
• A consultation for the Americas, 23-24 February 2021, co-organized by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), Universidad Andrés Bello, and Instituto de Derechos Humanos y Empresas - Universidad de Monterrey
• A consultation only for private sector organized by the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), 9 April 2021
• A consultation for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 21 April 2021 It is being convened by the UN Working Group and co-organized the Polish Institute for Human Rights and Business (Poland) and Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine). Concept note for the meeting available in English and Русский. Summary of the discussions from the consultation (English)
• A consultation convened by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights and organized by the South Centre, only for its member States, 29 April 2021.
• A consultation for Africa, 18 May and 26 May 2021, co-organized by the University of Pretoria's Centre for Human Rights, the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA), the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Uganda, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Summary of the discussions from the consultation (English) 
• A consultation for Asia and Oceania, 14 June 2021. It is being convened by the Working Group and co-organized by Australian Human Rights Institute (Australia), Hamad bin Khalifa University College of Law (Qatar), University of Colombo (Sri Lanka) and ESCAP.

The Working Group invited States and all other stakeholders to submit relevant information to help inform the report.

See questionnaire (English | Français | Español) and open call for input (English | Français | Español).