Telling Our Stories, Writing Our Future

It seems as though working ininternational law had always been inthe cards for Nathalie BernasconiOsterwalder. Becoming a lawyer had beena life goal since she was very young, andshe is now able to live out her ambition,working as a senior international lawyer and headof the Investment Program at IISD.“As a child, you maybe have a rosy picture ofwhat you can achieve through the law,” she says.“What really made me want to study law was thepursuit of justice. Later on, I got very interested ininternational law as a way for countries to cometogether to find solutions in a peaceful way.”IISD’s Nathalie BernasconiOsterwalder is committedto bringing transparency tointernational legal processes.A dual citizen of Switzerland and Canada,Nathalie has always had an internationalperspective on her field of work and after furtherspecializing her interests, she now focuses oninternational economic law, working to addressthe inequalities that exist between different states.It makes sense, therefore, that Nathalie was partof the IISD team that contributed significantly tothe United Nations Commission on InternationalTrade Trade Law’s (UNCITRAL’s) revision of itsarbitration rules: a process whereby organizationsand countries worked together to ensureUNCITRAL adopted new rules that guaranteetransparency in investor-state arbitrations andaccess for everyone.The seven-year process began back in 2006when UNCITRAL began revising its arbitrationrules. IISD had already identified a gaping holein the rules: one of transparency. Whether thearbitrations involve an investor challenginga state’s legitimate environmental or equitymeasure, or demanding hundreds of millionsor even billions of state dollars, these are issuesthat affect and should be of great interest tothe general public. IISD’s goal was thereforevery clear.“What we wanted to do in UNCITRAL isincrease transparency so that the publicand other governments involved in similararbitrations could know what is going on behindthose closed doors,” says Nathalie.After gaining observer status in the workinggroup set up to revise the arbitration rules,Nathalie is pleased to state that IISD wasinstrumental in stoking a debate surroundingtransparency in the process, one that just did notexist before. Nathalie explains that IISD also hadthe expertise to “provide specific legal languageand a framework on how this could work,” all ofwhich she says is reflected in the final result ofthe rules.A Commitment to Justice Drove the SuccessfulPush for International Trade Law Transparency6 IISD Annual Report 2013/14Telling our stories. Writing our future.7

There were some surprises along the way.Nathalie did not expect the number of developedcountries who took a stance against transparencyearly in the process, and were very reluctantto see its potential benefits. Other developingcountries, such as Argentina and South Africa,were very much in favour of heightenedtransparency. Ultimately, however, throughoutthe seven years, countries were able to cometogether to collaborate toward a common goal.Finally, on April 1, 2014, the UNCITRAL Ruleson Transparency in Treaty-based Investor–StateArbitration (“Transparency Rules”) came intoeffect. It represented a resounding success for allthe work Nathalie and the team had put in. “Thesuccessful outcome is that we now have UN rulesthat are widely used that ensure transparency ininvestor-state arbitrations.”But surely an outcome to such a high-levelprocess is of interest to only international tradelawyers? Not so, says Nathalie. For her, this is aresult that affects everyone, because at the core isa question of the public’s right to know: “The factis that, in investor-state arbitration, the numberof cases being brought against states is increasing.Ultimately what happens in those cases has adirect impact on each and every one of us.”Outcomes can affect democratic processes,as investors are able to challenge any kind ofgovernment measure. Moreover, these cases canresult in great costs coming out of the publicpurse, and therefore taxpayers’ pockets. TheTransparency Rules simply ensure that the publichas access to all this information.Even after such a great success, the team willnot rest on its laurels. They are already hardat work on a second process: to apply the newrules to treaties that are already in effect aswell as to other processes, such as those underthe International Centre for the Settlement ofInvestment Disputes. They are also workingon broader institutional reform and lookingat different mechanisms to improve disputesettlement and to provide alternatives, includingan appeals mechanism.Ultimately, Nathalie is pleased to have seendiverse nations working together towards ashared goal—one of her major motivations inbecoming a lawyer. In terms of the UNCITRALprocess, she reveals that her proudest momentwas when “at one point the discussion reallybecame independent of IISD,” she says. IISDbegan the discussion, provided options for howthe issue could be addressed, and provided theexpertise and framework, “but at some point thestates really began to work together and adoptedthis issue, making it their own.”“The fact is that in investor-state arbitration, the number of cases being brought againststates is increasing. Ultimately what happens in those cases has a direct impact on each and every one of us.”8 IISD Annual Report 2013/14Telling our stories. Writing our future.9

Indicator System Displays Power of Well-Being Data,Community PartnershipsThe “unbearable extremes of weather” aside, Heather Block loves her nativeWinnipeg, Canada, and speaks proudly of it. “I love that combination offeeling like you’re in a small town (you can always find a mutual connectionbetween people), but having access to all the benefits of living in a city.” Shehas contributed to her city’s betterment throughout her working life. Having workedas a social worker and in community development, she is now the director of StrategicInitiatives at the United Way of Winnipeg, with whom IISD partnered on the Peg project.“Peg is Winnipeg’s community-indicator system,” says Block, “and what that means is thatwe have identified eight different areas of well-being and within each of those, we haveidentified a number of indicators that we track year by year to see how we are doing.”The project tracks things such as how much citizens are recycling, how many childrenare in care, the rate of diabetes and how many students are graduating high school, andpresents the results in visually appealing yearly reports as well as on its website (mypeg.ca)and through social media.“No one indicator by itself is a good way of telling how we are doing as a city. It’s reallyabout looking at a suite of indicators and tracking our progress year by year.” The intentionis then to use that information as evidence to justify and aid actions and improvements inthose sectors, hence the tagline, Tracking Progress, Inspiring Action.10 IISD Annual Report 2013/14Telling our stories. Writing our future.11

The December 2013launch of Peg broughtthe community togetherto reflect on thesocial, economic andenvironmental indicatorsof urban well-being.United Way of Winnipeg had been reaching outto Winnipeggers to ask them what they thoughtwas needed to improve community engagement.Heather notes that “one of the questions thatkept coming up was: how can we know if all ofour time, energy and investments are makinga difference?” Clearly an indicator system wasneeded. Out of this was born a partnershipbetween United Way of Winnipeg and IISD,whose energy and vision came together to createWinnipeg’s first community-indicator system.Heather is extremely pleased that the twoorganizations collaborated on Peg: “It has beena true partnership and the right partnership.”IISD’s skills and specialized knowledge in datacollection was paired perfectly with United Way ofWinnipeg’s intricate knowledge of the city and itspeople. According to Heather, IISD could not bebetter collaborators, due to an attention to detailand smooth working relationship that made theproject development a smooth process, as did thesupport of IISD’s president, Scott Vaughan.There were, of course, some bumps along the road.Heather knows that it is always difficult to findsustained funding for projects like these, especiallywhen they do not work on an immediate need.United Way of Winnipeg and IISD workedtogether, however, to secure cross-sectoralfunding, which also ensured some broadercredibility for the project’s outputs.After the years of consultation, planning,development and data collection, Peg was unveiledat an event on December 2013, along with thelaunch of its accompanying website. Monthslater, the impact of the project can already beseen. Heather speaks of organizations submittingproposals for funding that cite data from Peg,meetings with education system policy-makersto develop curricula using Peg indicators and thedevelopment of new data sets that will enhancethe project.For Heather, however, it is all about changing theconversation, with the goal of ultimately creating realworld change. She recalls the day before Bell Canada’smental health awareness “Let’s Talk” campaign, whenUnited Way of Winnipeg and IISD disseminated one ofthe more concerning findings of Peg: that one in fourWinnipeggers has been diagnosed with an anxiety ormood disorder over the last five years. “The next day,when the campaign was launched, what I saw on Twitterwas

2013-2014 Annual Report Writing Our Future. Telling Our Stories. Telling our stories. Writing our future. 3 Head Office 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4 Tel: 1 204 958-7700 Fax: 1 204 958-7710 info@iisd.ca www.iisd.org Geneva Office International Environment House 2 9 chemin de Balexert 1219 Châtelaine .