sheria children is just 57 spend a tap on your smartphone smartphone users number sure i would. imagine the impact you and your friends are going to have together weekend and global please download the app. also in 2016 across europe tens of thousands mobilize against planned free trade deals with the u.s. and canada belgium's were loney region is blocking seiza amazing european pact with canada thrusting the e.u. into crisis. and is focused on a little known provision routinely included in trade deals it allows foreign investors to bring investment disputes before an international arbitration tribunal

and multinational corporations to assume sovereign states for billions of dollars. but what are these tribunals who handles their cases and who represents the interests of the people after all it's taxpayers who foot the bill. to get a clearer picture we examine an opaque system that circumvents national court and effectively hands foreign investors the power to pressure democratically elected governments. whether it's an industrial power or developing country every nation is vulnerable and best to lawsuits against dates impact everything from human rights and health to public finances and the environment this report sheds light on the extraordinary power of international arbitration tribunals. or and.

the focus human you cleared. so shocked the world and profoundly changed german energy policy. driven by the country's anti nuclear movement protests in 450 cities underlined growing public opposition to nuclear power. under pressure chancellor angela merkel made a decision the country's planned phase out of nuclear energy would be brought forward. by focus iemma changed my attitude toward nuclear energy germany will cease using nuclear energy by 2022 it's like being in that thank.

the chancellor's decision to exit nuclear power was written into nor 4 months later when the stock overwhelmingly backed the 13th amendment of the nuclear power act. soon after the 7 oldest nuclear reactors was shut down. they included the poem's bottle and cannot plant both operated by the swedish utility voting 5. fucking father sponsored by filing a complaint against the legislation at the constitutional court in cults or germany's highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction. but as a foreign investor it also had the option of bringing germany to an international arbitration. the company had successfully taken this route before why not try again in 1012 it submitted a separate claim against germany's nuclear phaseout this one at the u.s.

based i c s id the proceedings took place in washington even though this was a purely european matter. well good morning leisure time i'm i'll bring your misty arbitration hearing dikshit case number they are being slashed well flushed. in a matter between one for the claimants and the federal republic of germany respondents . the presiding arbitration of us are pretty on front and bare button was represented by swedish attorney cuyahoga the federal republic of germany by subpoena khan caught. in false claim 4700000 euros damages. doesn't matter if a parliament was adopted. in the most democratic way. it can still violate international obligations that the state has undertaken in the

international treaty. or it is for each individual state to decide whether law they want to sign such treaties with germany is trying to do in this arbitration is tricks ploy the fukushima disaster. to create a narrative that would excuse its wrongdoing. you can put perfume on it but the bottom line here is that the international and the government this dispute. legally germany couldn't challenge a treaty it had already ratifies but it could prove that the swedish energy giant had failed to meet its obligations creating a threat to public safety. claimants now seek compensation for their own business failure billions for plants which were not tarrie is for their problems but apparently in the south reality

a burning transfer meter is totally normal as are busting pipes also normal and docking universe corroded barrels with radioactive waste. to follow sonia promotional video off the crime of power plant in that video none of the. events that are listed here on the site feature and plans but both of them have been standing still. not because of fukushima not because of the moratorium not because of the 13th amendment but because of a multitude of incidents. criminal groups brutal shed light on a ray of shortcomings to feel understood. a nuclear physicist with greenpeace was appointed an expert witness by the federal

constitutional court he conducted a thorough investigation of the plant the facts. experience nuclear experts were questioning why these reactors were facing so many problems and anomalies. could be sealed chromos fate was a fire in one of the transformers in 2007. that machine guns from are the hottest the transformer had about 70 tons of oil in it. when this oil caught fire it created a huge blaze. the entire reactor and surrounding area was envelop in black smoke. and that revealed many defects it came from the fire protection system was totally insufficient water reserves ran out while the fire was still going strong school which was from an external short circuit can trigger

a chain reaction that ends in disaster. but unfolds lawyer hid behind the law and strict interpretations of legal guidelines to avoid any recognition of company liability. what is. very clear that this group of people or many of them have been educated particular where they're all educated in this particular way of looking at international war as a sort of a technical matter and at the same time thinking that giving companies as many rights and privileges will benefit the global economy so lawyers are not trained in thinking about consequences of their cases more as a trained in thinking about a way apply the law. there is only a french. and the french term is the policy. so this is what this really applies here people think in a very similar way this case is very controversial and has generated much public

debate now why is that because it's an arbitration which should never have been brought under the energy charter treaty and under the exit convention the reason for the amendment was different. actually and you are correct that is correct if that is a public perception. how would that legally translate into the investment protection. you know sure i make a number of assumptions and i don't ask you to do anything but sure this would be because it is almost impossible hypothetical because you are. assuming that the public is wrong and the right or wrong the perception changes in the public how

does that translate into legally into the city. and i was listening to barton fats our opening this morning. claiming that the 13th and meant and it was a political decision and i've said it quite often i wonder when political has become such a dirty word it. it comes from the greek political us which means relating to the people to the citizens to the state and democracy is nothing if not political it is government of the people by the people for the people. it has to be political that's a definition and it's certainly not a dirty word. multinational corporations reject the political and democratic considerations of one state as if they operated outside politics and

a buffalo but the lure still exist. while button for the case against germany continued in washington a verdict was reached by the constitutional court in concert or where the company launched its 1st complaint. the court ruled that the government's decision to shut down its reactors ahead of schedule was compatible with the constitution barton said power companies were entitled to compensation for losses incurred as a result of the decision. and gotten fired. so vattenfall could no longer argue that it needed an international arbitrator to protect its interests because its claim to protection was recognized. was granted the right to compensation within the framework of our constitution. surely it would be disastrous if despite our constitutional regulations a completely different outcome emerged from the proceedings in washington that

would end the democratic rule of law in this country and. its indecent lucian the shut down of nuclear energy in germany is basically a done deal and the anti nuclear side is justified to feel like the winner. for german states simply shocking what vattenfall did here us must. be nice vattenfall is protected under german law. as a foreign company it was not treated unfairly it was treated just like the domestic companies in the energy sector. it's them. so it's clearly superfluous to take the case to an external arbitration tribunal that woman a ballpark figure for reasonable compensation for vattenfall would be in the region of several hundreds of millions of euros but in no way could it be the 4700000000 euros that bought in fall was seeking. to get hit. and.

the government will lay down the compensation in an amendment to existing legislation that then has to be approved by the bundestag. the process is very different in private arbitration the panel of corporate lawyers has the power to award much higher compensation sums without any outside review or appeal. and a considerable portion of the very high legal costs ranging between $4.00 and $10000000.00 usually has to be paid by the country involved in critiquing the system we of course we need to to criticize also the power of the companies and we need to criticize what corporate lawyers do but we also need to point our fingers at the states and have we have to really say look. states created the systems and states have the power to get rid of the system that's and even if there

are colombia or peru or developing countries even if there are mali and what have you the states have the power to get rid of the system if they choose to do so. but do they actually want to do so governments often have close ties to big business but in fact for example had the chancellor. she even appointed its former c.e.o. now as good a nurse of sun as a special advisor to the government on climate protection. like under america now the state leaders are in 2 minds about the issue on the one hand they want to attract foreign investors with trade agreements that often. the national's attractive conditions. on the other they want to enact environmental labor and public health legislation but it's often not in the interests of multinational corporations.

not even you don't consider it's time we admit that we're dealing with 2 different systems of power. the 1st is the traditional power system the one that is increasingly being reduced to a folkloric accessory. a kind of shadow play to entertain the public funds i'm talking about the countries traditionally discussed in the newspapers shop france germany australia japan brazil the us and so on. walks alongside this there is a 2nd entirely autonomy's power system that functions totally differently it doesn't copy the existing model it operates according to its very own rules so it appears multinationals view themselves as an independent system set apart from everything else in another dimension totally detached from the rest of the world. and the rest of the world in other words the traditional states their laws and judiciary must be dominated by this independent system of corporations and function

according to its rules. and the actors in the system are completely invisible you don't see them at all. only leave well. together we welcome you all to today's hearing. in this case of the written crew group inc it's claiming to vs the republic of pollute as respondent and that is exceed case number you and c t slash 13 slash one in the 1990 s. i was very interested in development strategies for emerging markets it was a very and cian exciting time after the end of the cold war as countries look for new strategies for sustainable development and i thought. the flows of investment are fascinating but what is going to happen in 5 or 10

years from dell. and that's the moment when i said i want to focus on the disputes that are inevitable. i met the steadily growing number of investor state disputes the global power of international investment tribunals has reached a moment proportions at the center of this case is a company that has caused suffering in both the u.s. and peru. the branco group has a long track record as a polluter. it's owned by iran that the american billionaire industrialist he began his career as a rule street credit. broncos' lead smelter poisoned the small town of herculaneum in the state of missouri mining contamination by its subsidiary don't run peru did the same to not arroyo high up in the andes the 2 communities joined forces to take a stand against rancor. back in about

2001 i was taking a bus from your up in the central highlands of peru down to the coast capital city where my family and i lived. before you get to the city you start to smell the city . you smell think you smell bad and then you see the vegetation begins to get out. and much of the rock is coated with white gravy it almost looks like calcium deposits. and we stopped the bus and i got off to stretch my legs we were taking a break there in la jolla for about 10 minutes and there were a couple kids who were walking down the street with their mother they were hacking their lungs out they were coughing really really bad as we went to the side of the smelter the smokestack is. emitting tons of pollution

which you see it's the passive contamination of what's leaking else the stoles of the smelter. there's no filter on that there's no chimney to get it up and out of the valley. emilia you know who you know you know do or you will get dark at noon because of the black smoke. just smell was terrible it engulf the whole town we set out here the smoke would drift toward us we'd feel it immediately it made our throat and head hurt so yeah larry. our eyes would start watering and we cough choked sometimes to the point where we couldn't even speak with you or services and sometimes children were confined to their rooms and we couldn't go out because there was too much smoke. the company didn't care and did nothing about it . he just carried on polluting and dumping its waste. in the state allowed this contamination the peruvian government knew what was going on here everyone could

see how damaging it was when the state should have done something about it but it didn't care for those c.e.o. . there was a sense that the proven government was not going to do anything to restrain the the run company from polluting that community of la toyia we didn't have a government that would. force compliance on foreign companies the power balance was too out of whack it's so favor the company in this situation that that made it very difficult for the national government in peru to enforce environmental standards. when rancor purchased the copper lead and zinc smelter from the peruvian government in 1907 it agreed to conditions it would have great the facility to make it less harmful to the environment. the company signed up to a new environmental management plan but instead of investing in cleaning up its

plant in peru iran it used a facility to evade taxes to funnel the money into 2 of his other mining companies in the u.s. state of missouri and on the cayman islands. meanwhile only has become so badly contaminated that it featured among side china noble and a ranking of the world's 10 most polluted places that contract to give the facility wrinkle was a beriberi bath with a lot of guts a lot of thing that unfortunately the government of big assume that it's all who make more attractive the facility for the private sector and it was the result of a very a responsible. company as reg. and i bury weak government that up proof for many time to pull full. obligation on research we

meant to start the presbyterian church was became more and more aware of the inner connections between. the us economy and. emerging economies around the world particularly around the issue of extractive industries and we asked the question what if there was a connection nexus connecting folks in missouri with folks in peru. hunter for a was working in peru as a presbyterian missionary from past to out on the stock and say nervous he heard about another day one facility causing as much environmental devastation as the one in peru and lead smelter and herculaneum in the u.s. state of missouri. this too was a rent a subsidiary. a company by the peruvian entrepreneurship petro director for all visited the town. to exchange between the affected communities in peru and the u.s.

. pastor eleanor stark had organized a meeting she invited some environmental health specialists from st louis university fed mandell sit around will and 2 representatives from the local your community. we had a conversation had a meal together and talked for a couple of hours really just sharing experiences around the circle and as each person spoke every testimony that was given from people in her kill any of the folks allowed or you would say that's the same situation we're facing the same situation in our city. the dolphin ised this sense of solidarity between folk. from north america and folks from peru as they realized they were facing the same issue and the same enemy and the stories were the same same things that were happening same relationship

with the company same kind of intimidation and threats same kind of denying that there was an issue of same health issues in both places so the 1st thing that we saw as our task was to provide for the community accurate scientific data there was no doubt on the table and so people didn't have any leverage to be able to. hold the keep the company accountable. the past as awareness campaign began to bear fruit. in 2005 and university of st louis research team headed by professor from the serrano traveled to peru to conduct blood tests on residents of roy of. the one of the.

in 2005 scientists from missouri came to do a comparative study on the lead content in the blood of the respective populations of la toyia and in the city of concepcion. the only the results were alarming. and still they didn't just find. they found a whole cocktail of heavy metals. such as cadmium who asked nick and mercury and. it was awful for us. not to find out we had all these substances in our bodies and had no idea. many things have happened here that we can no longer tolerate.

this is unfortunately a very complicated matter especially in a case like this between a private company and the state. i know you've been fighting for your rights for 10 years but i can assure you that we will carry on and we will continue to support you we will continue to monitor what is happening here. was the president of the movement for health she was just a leader of a local community that connected with. non-profit organizations. who are connected with the. folks. in. our movement has achieved a great deal. and not just for a few people but for the entire population. we've also fought for

those who have no voice for the children. the company doe run did everything it could to silence workers and anyone else on the topic of pollution in la toya. yes he'll more. than about you know who it is not simply learning they're really going to minister . if you have a letter they're going to mean there's those who did talk about it to me they. were declared enemies of the company it was dancing and. sometimes i feel bad when my husband says to me we didn't gain anything by sacrificing our shop. they forced us to leave. what did your movement do for us now that's how my husband talks and you say you know when i tell

him. i didn't do this for my own personal gain what you give you. i did it to change things. but to make a difference to people's health. so that they wouldn't continue to destroy our health. through. the blood analyses carried out by the u.s. researches so division and the local population. leaflet against the vampires from missouri who were sucking the blood of peruvian children. activists like rosa morrow received death threats as they worked to raise awareness of heavy metal poisoning. the rent a group meanwhile threatening to shut up a plant. in

. there i looked and there were a lot of mostly by the. it also because of the old. or young. continue operating proving government was continually assaulted by the threats of the door run company which said $4000.00 jobs will be gone tomorrow local folks desperately needed the jobs so it became a significant issue and every time there was a threat or the rumor moved through challenging the saying that the company might be closed or the approving government was going to be forcing the closure of the company folks would hit the streets. or you're not. you know i think you know you're easier as you know better. than it.

is and yeah yeah. yeah. forbiddingly mother i didn't know you were let me just love it if you believe it was only very much. when i started. to stock up on the novels are 3 still going on your know your looks he spent. his teammate responsible and looked a little you missed a momentous time when he's on the scene you're lonely as somebody in the same boat whose time it was 4 percent at this point and it does get one thing not used to not i would never thought i could do something even on the. the results of the medical study were clear that the smelter was poisoning the people of low arroyo the findings left reuben anxious about his eldest son one.

a couple can't prove that these are the exact values of one's blood tests. lead content in blood 35.34 arsenic 60.78. cadmium content in your own 2.67. there's the mucus membranes in his mouth are infected and he has a speech impediment we can't talk properly it says here the child must leave. 97 percent of the children had lived in the halls. some must highest $30.40 micrograms per deciliter which would be crucial children in such conditions in the us would be hospitalized here in the us. but. there are some significant cognitive disability there's some significant motor

skill coordination issues children a lot oh yeah it would be losing between $1.00 and $3.00 i.q. points for every year that they lived in the city. policy to look at is he this was that one needs intensive treatment. but i don't have the money at that. level that he does feel that maybe i'm giving up at the lamas that mean you're simply too. basic it will say something that is it will be an open one of these if you like you that claim but he said boy i'm almost sure i didn't believe me until they know my family in value. good bloody good will be good and good will is good i think but it's a school merely. for us you only get noise that we wish to hold us only so we're not going to live with all the evils of the base will be going to get them in getting more seats at the us and that's a good c.e.o.

he can you legally is going to hear he's told the guy that you know we're going. in 2009 the peruvian government cited don't run peru for environmental violations and now roy claiming financial problems ranko shut the facility its license was revoked now iran has turned the tables. accuse peru of indirect expropriation and found an arbitration lawsuit against the state the case was heard in washington residents of la arroyo were not asked to testify that being the case please let us invite mr hamilton to begin his oral submissions thank you. for so enough to release its enough when they record source of course it's one of many that can call each us process iglesias. yours by the race mud the race

going impress us you thought about how boris. your economic or. your woman or. the treaty allows an investor to bring a claim against the state either on the claimant's own behalf. for its own injuries for state conduct or it may bring a claim on behalf of an enterprise that it owns and controls for loss or damage that the enterprise has suffered. free trade treaties have this clause a state investor clause which allow companies corporations to sue local community is government groups states nations if they feel that their profits are being undermined in any way past present or future profits. that means if local communities that are being poisoned if they object if they do anything

that the company feels is interrupting their profits. they can be sued the local folks in peru have real fears a lot of doubts about the arbitration system feeling that it's almost like it's described as a faceless jury no one knows they're not accountable to us we don't know who they are we don't know who got them into those positions of arbitration put the decision making it took it away from local community and people who would live to reap the consequences of those decisions and put it in the hands of people whom we don't even know. to give residents of la toya a voice peruvian archbishop petro beretta secured a public hearing before a u.s. congressional subcommittee. rosa and fernando serrano from st louis university testified in july 2012. that is are. we have sound scientific evidence of the grave threat to the people of

the environment as does the studies have shown. great concern again is there multiple exposure all of this toxic metals affecting the body and tickled effects. so a discussion of the economic and legal in other factors related to the relationship between the united states government emperor who we differ in work of the u.s. trade free agreement i believe i believe we must put an emphasis we must make a priority of the health needs and rights of the people of iraq especially the children and especially the unborn children being born with lead in their bodies and that is something that we can see they're completely unacceptable like you know as miss america if she would sing. nicely akiko but i am not here as a political leader you know as a technical expert. i'm here as

a citizen of la toya and as a mother worried for her children. and his source of help here that those who support ron have throwing stones at my house and threatened me with death yet the government gave to run several opportunities to end the pollution at the metal smelt out and then the company never did anything and now it has the nerve to sue the peruvian state that unless they look at it one. on the half of more than 1000 children from not a royal noise incident numerous filed a suit against iran that in missouri. in 2010 a court there ordered remco to pay $65000000.00 to clean up pollution at its leg refinery and herculaneum. concerning the children of the iran it came to peruse and not record was liable for any personal injury claims.

promptly after filing the notice of intent in december of 2010 rinko ran directly to the court of the united states in an effort to remove claims brought by. children of loud roya from state court to federal court they rinko did that by bringing to the attention of the united states federal court the existence of a treaty dispute that case played out over a period of years and in 2016 the international tribunal found that rent-a oh had failed to comply with that obligation under the treaty to waive local proceedings it's a very specific requirement the interpretation of that requirement was agreed upon

by peru and the united states and the tribunal found that there was a violation of that treaty requirement. the claim i'm going to be arbitration will fraenkel was refused because of formal every cells but sure wrinkle can again wreak labor resealed the earlier government so that is why we need to act with a lot of careful to avoid the risk of heavy rain. the proof you have more of it. it was a symbolic victory for the peruvian state. though it wasn't convicted the state nevertheless had to pay the legal fees between food and $8000000.00. the residents of had khamenei and the us have received compensation the people of lower area are still waiting continued to breathe poisoned air my greatest hope is that

people between the united states will recognize the cost of a wax legal system that allows corporate polluters to. literally get away with murder. at some point we've got to recognize the fact that while investors have rights. no one has the right to take away the intelligence of any child and no one has the right to contribute towards children in any given. the outcry in belgium's wallonia region served as a wake up call for europe and the blocs institutions to action and march 2018 the european court of justice revoked a 22000000 euro fine imposed by an arbitration court against slovakia the court ruled that arbitration clauses between member states violate. that could set

a precedent for future investment disputes between members. with its judgement. europe's top court appeared to be asserting its sovereignty and power to legislate . and the european commission is adapting its model for investment protection and future trade deals with plans to set up a public international and permanent court that could replace private arbitration tribunals. let's not delude ourselves multinationals won't give up the power offered by investment up or tradition they can rely on the world's best attorneys to defend them in the name of free trade agreements signed by countries in the past.

but awareness of the shadowy system gives civil society a choice it can remain vigilant protest and resist to prevent states from bowing to the economic and financial pressure exerted by corporations. to defend the power of state to an actual legislation for the good of their people and to protect the health of citizens and the environment around the world so that government decisions benefit the common good and not the commercial gain of multinational corporations.

the food. in the thick of it agriculture is in crisis. climate change land speculation and harmful pesticides are threatening the life they hoods of countless farmers more genetic engineering more organic farming or even obama. what's the future of agriculture made in germany and 30 minutes on g.w. . entered the conflict zone confronting the powerful. my

guests this week here in london to speak conservative can feed off false walk from me hard line your field is such who has been snapping endlessly around this is masefield spoke with the conservative party's ratings currently plummeting through the floor of the party even deserve to survive conflicts of. receiving the minutes on the double of. their super shot. many are themselves away super secret then you'll hear the jingling of points and super rich definitely around. 20000000000 more. how do germany's wealthiest people live why do they keep

such a low profile we have a snoop around to catch a glimpse. of it's hard. to describe the super rich starts to take on the double. denmark's liberal prime minister last look at rasmussen has conceded defeat in the country's general election early results show left leaning parties made gains at the expense of the populist danish people's party the main opposition social democrats took just over 25 percent of the vote after campaigning to take a tough stance on immigration. leaders of 16 nations or joined britain's queen elizabeth in marking the 75th then.