"Human rights in trade and investment policies: The potential of a UN treaty on transnational corporations and other business", Apr 2017

...[W]hile the number of bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements has grown over the past decades, their impacts on human rights have not been adequately addressed...

Investor protection provisions enable foreign investors to challenge national regulations and claim billions of euros as compensation for perceived unfairness or indirect expropriation. They can take legal action even against reforms that affect land ownership, water supply or health care or serve the protection of human rights and the environment.

...[T]he UN Human Rights Council in 2011, deal explicitly with international trade and investment agreements and make clear that States are expected to consistently fulfil their obligation to protect human rights in this context...

CIDSE and its members have been advocating for various reforms of trade and investment agreements...

CIDSE members have also proposed to include human rights in exception clauses of trade and investment agreements, to ensure that provisions of these agreements cannot prevent the adoption of measures for the purpose of respecting, protecting or fulfilling human rights and respecting democratic principles and the rule of law in their internal and international policies...