UNIS/L/359
3 July 2024

The European Union signs the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration

VIENNA, 3 July (UN Information Service) – The European Union signed the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (the "Mauritius Convention on Transparency") at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 2 July 2024. The signature of the Convention by the European Union opens the door to Member States of the European Union to ratify, accede to or approve the Convention. The signature also comes as the Mauritius Convention on Transparency celebrates its 10th anniversary with a series of commemorative events organized globally and in conjunction with UNCITRAL Days, an academic series promoting awareness of international trade standards and norms.

The Mauritius Convention on Transparency provides States and regional economic integration organizations with an efficient mechanism for making the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based investor-State Arbitration ("Rules on Transparency") applicable to investment treaties concluded their entry into force on 1 April 2014. The Convention thus supplements pre-existing investment treaties with respect to transparency-related obligations. By becoming a party to the Convention, a State or regional economic integration organization expresses its consent to apply the Rules on Transparency to investor-State arbitration.

The Rules on Transparency are a set of procedural rules that ensure transparency and public accessibility to treaty-based investor-State arbitration. Together with the Rules on Transparency, the Mauritius Convention on Transparency takes into account both the public interest in such arbitrations and the interest of the parties to resolve disputes in a fair and efficient manner.

The Transparency Registry (https://uncitral.un.org/transparencyregistry), maintained by the UNCITRAL secretariat, functions as a central repository to make investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) cases and related documents accessible to the public, free of charge. The European Union has agreed to provide financial support for the next three years to sustain the operation of the Transparency Registry and to promote the UNCITRAL Transparency Standards. The European Union has been a donor to the Transparency Registry since December 2015, when its financial support enabled the establishment of the Registry. The continued operation of the Transparency Registry has also benefited from financial support the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The Mauritius Convention on Transparency also paved the way for the work of Working Group III on ISDS reform, which began in 2017 (https://uncitral.un.org/working_groups/3/investor-state). The Commission has already finalized a number of texts prepared by the group, including the UNCITRAL Code of Conduct for Arbitrators in International Investment Dispute Resolution (and commentary), the UNCITRAL Code of Conduct for Judges in International Investment Dispute Resolution (and commentary), the UNCITRAL Model Provisions on Mediation for International Investment Disputes, and the UNCITRAL Guidelines on Mediation for International Investment Disputes (https://uncitral.un.org/texts/isds). 

In addition, the Commission is expected to adopt the draft statute of an advisory centre on international investment dispute resolution in principle and consider issues arising from its operationalization. The Commission is also expected to take note of the progress made by the Working Group on a draft toolkit on dispute prevention and mitigation.

In the fall, the Working Group is expected to continue its consideration of the draft statute of a standing mechanism and the draft provisions on procedural and cross-cutting issues. The first draft of a multilateral instrument on ISDS reform, modelled on the Mauritius Convention on Transparency, will also be before the Working Group for its consideration this fall.

The Mauritius Convention on Transparency is open for signature, ratification, and accession by States and regional economic integration organizations.

Up-to-date information about the parties and signatories to the Convention, is available on the UNCITRAL website: https://uncitral.un.org/.

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The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. Its mandate is to remove legal obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods, transport law, procurement and infrastructure development. 

UNCITRAL also provides technical assistance to law reform activities, including assisting Member States to review and assess their law reform needs and to draft the legislation required to implement UNCITRAL texts. The UNCITRAL secretariat is located in Vienna, Austria. For more information, visit: uncitral.un.org

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For information, please contact:

José Angelo Estrella-Faria 
Principal Legal Officer and Head, Legislative Branch 
UNCITRAL Secretariat 
Email: joseangelo.estrella-faria@un.org