Foreign Investment with a Human Face

The paper explores the relevance of and the role played by international human rights in the field of foreign investment from the standpoint of investment-related treaties. Referring to the rights of indigenous peoples, the paper focuses more specifically on the so-called collective or group rights of nationals of the host State which can be violated by foreign investors. To contextualise the analysis of the indigenous peoples’ right in the realm of investment treaty arbitration, the paper provides first a review of the current use of human rights in international investment law (Section II) and an analysis of the way human rights can be taken into account through applicable law (Section III) and interpretation (Section IV). Turning to the core of the study, it provides then an analysis of the normative framework (Section V) and of the relations between foreign investment and indigenous peoples’ rights (Section VI).