Tanzania rejects ISDS
Tanzania has recently faced a wave of ISDS cases in addition to this one. It lost a case to Standard Chartered Bank over an electricity contract and was ordered to pay a massive £116m. It is being sued by Acacia Mining over gold mining, by Symbion Power also on electricity, by Biwater Gauff on water supply and by Sunlodges over another land licence.
This has brought things to a head, and in September 2018, the Tanzanian government passed a law banning ISDS. It now requires corporations to use national courts to resolve disputes instead. This will not be retroactive and so cases already underway, like Agro EcoEnergy’s, will continue.
Tanzania joins other countries around the world who are taking steps to reject ISDS, including South Africa, India, New Zealand and Ecuador. Brazil has always refused to sign up to ISDS.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS,) or ‘corporate courts’, gives corporations far reaching privileges and access to their own legal system to enforce them. This mechanism threatens society, democracy and the planet.
STOP ISDS!