On 10 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by resolution 69/116, at the 68th plenary meeting of its sixty-ninth session, on the report of the Sixth Committee (A/69/496), the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration, annexed to the resolution. Operative paragraph 3 authorizes a ceremony for the opening for signature in Port Louis on 17 March 2015 and recommends that the instrument be known as the “Mauritius Convention on Transparency”. Six authentic texts: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Depositary: the Secretary-General (Article 6).

The preamble: the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency, adopted by the Commission on 11 July 2013, effective as of 1 April 2014. Article 1(1): this Convention applies to arbitration between an investor and a State or a regional economic integration organization conducted on the basis of an investment treaty concluded before 1 April 2014. Article 1(2): “investment treaty” means any bilateral or multilateral treaty — including any treaty commonly referred to as a free trade agreement, economic integration agreement, trade and investment framework or cooperation agreement, or bilateral investment treaty — which contains provisions on the protection of investments or investors and a right for investors to resort to arbitration against contracting parties to that investment treaty.

Article 2(1): bilateral or multilateral application. The Rules on Transparency shall apply to any such investor-State arbitration, whether or not initiated under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, in which the respondent is a Party that has not made a relevant reservation under Article 3(1)(a) or (b), and the claimant is of a State that is a Party that has not made a relevant reservation under Article 3(1)(a). Article 2(2): a unilateral offer of application, where point 1 does not apply, if the respondent is a Party that has not made a relevant reservation and the claimant agrees to the Rules. Article 2(5): a claimant may not invoke a most-favoured-nation provision to seek to apply, or avoid the application of, the Rules under this Convention.

Article 3: reservations expressly authorized — a specific investment treaty identified by title and parties; a specific set of arbitration rules other than the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, where the Party is respondent; exclusion of the unilateral offer; and, within six months of a revision of the Rules, non-application of that revised version. No other reservations. Article 5: the Convention and any reservation apply only to investor-State arbitrations commenced after the date when they enter into force or take effect for the Party concerned. Article 7(1): open for signature in Port Louis, and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York, by any State or by a regional economic integration organization that is a contracting party to an investment treaty.

Article 9(1): this Convention shall enter into force six months after the date of deposit of the third instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. Entry into force: 18 October 2017. Article 8: a regional economic integration organization does not count as a Party in addition to its member States which are Parties. This is not an investment-protection treaty; it is a mechanism by which Parties to treaties concluded before 1 April 2014 record consent to apply the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency.

The General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the place of adoption, not the signing room in Port Louis. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration. The text: A/RES/69/116, United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration.