Under the theme “Modernizing Investment Treaties to support the Sustainable Development Goals", a conference jointly organized by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), UNCITRAL and the OECD explored practical avenues to accelerate the reform of investment treaties. The investment treaty conference took place on 31 March 2025 in Paris. The video recordings of the conference are available here.

The investment treaty conference was opened by Carmine Di Noia (Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD), Nan Li Collins (Senior Director, Division on Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD) and Anna Joubin-Bret (Secretary, UNCITRAL).

The high-level panels featured 29 speakers from key stakeholder communities. With investment governance at a crossroads, collaboration between international organizations, governments, private sector, civil society and academia is essential to deliver effective reforms of the investment treaty regime.

A global shift towards the reform of international investment agreements (IIAs) is clearly visible in the texts of treaties signed in the past decade. However, a large stock of over 2,000 old-generation IIAs with outdated designs and content are yet to be reformed.

The investment treaty conference highlighted that different paths exist for reform, with efforts underway at the national, regional and multilateral levels. Speakers repeatedly mentioned that more technical assistance and financial support is needed for countries, particularly developing and least developed countries, to engage in reform processes. Additional capacity-building activities and resources could help drive forward the effective modernization of outdated investment treaty networks, in line with today’s global priorities as well as development objectives at national and regional levels.

Read the joint background note here.

Agenda and video recordings:

Opening remarks

Carmine Di Noia, Anna Joubin-Bret, Nan Li Collins.

Session 1: Modernizing investment treaties: what would be benefits of reform?

Patricia Holmes, Winand Quaedvlieg, Ernesto Simanungkalit, Mark Jacobs, Roslyn Ngeno, Rodrigo Monardes, Moderator: Rupert Schlegelmilch.

Session 2: Reforming investment treaties: joint objectives, joint efforts, benefits for all

Radwa Kamouna, William Hugues Roos, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Jason File, Meshaal Alfaiz, Vilawan Mangklatanakul, Moderator: Shane Spelliscy.

Session 3: A global shift in the design and content of investment treaties: overview of the main recent trends

Lorenzo Cotula, Lauge Poulsen, Colin Brown, Juan Felipe Bernal Uribe, Niki Kruger, Moderator: Nan Li Collins.

Session 4: How to implement reforms? Practical avenues to achieve a pragmatic transition of investment treaties

Sylvie Tabet, Gabriel Bottini, Jessica Di Maria, Jae Sung Lee, Hamed El Kady, Moderator: Makane Moïse Mbengue.

Closing

Ana Novik, Hamed El Kady, Jae Sung Lee.

UNCTAD Resources:

International Investment Agreements Reform Accelerator

Mapping sustainable development and investment facilitation provisions in IIAs concluded by G20 Members and invited countries

International investment agreements trends: the increasing dichotomy between new and old treaties

Facts and figures on investor-State dispute settlement cases

IIA Reform Toolbox for the energy transition