How come corporations can sue states for billions in response to their democratic decisions? Vattenfall sued Germany for strengthening environmental laws and phasing out nuclear power. Huawei sued Sweden for banning them from selling 5G equipment and South Africa was sued by a foreign mining company for its reform to reduce inequality after apartheid.These are just a few examples of lawsuits made possible through Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. They are often included in trade and investment agreements and allow corporations to sue states for measures that may reduce the value of their invetsments.South African has chosen another way.

Rikard Allvin and Ms. Lebohang Liepollo Pheko will discuss trade and investment treaties, what implications they have and what can be done to make trade serve people instead of profits for corporations.

Rikard Allvin is an independent author and trade expert. He has worked with trade issues for more than ten years. In January his first book ”Frihandelns fångar – avtalen som hotar demokratin” was published.

Ms. Lebohang Liepollo Pheko is a senior research fellow and political economist at a think tank called Trade Collective and has over 25 years of experience in cross sector leadership. She is an activist scholar, public intellectual, political economist, African feminist theoretician. Her research Interests are in States & African nationhood, African trade relations , regional integration , globalisation in the context of African states.

Seminariet är arrangerat av Afrikagrupperna och Göteborgs Afrikagrupp

Moderator: Annika Lillemets
När: Lördag 24 september kl 16.00-16.40
Plats: Globala torget, Stora Scen
Seminariet är på engelska