On cutting the time available to the Waitangi Tribunal

This paper formed part of my presentation to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee on the TPPA treaty consideration

Yesterday it was revealed that fast-tracking the report date for the Select Committee considering the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will have the effect of giving the Waitangi Tribunal three rather than seven weeks to produce its urgent  and complex report on the claim brought by prominent Maori that the Agreement violates the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order has already described the TPPA process as illegal under international law and injurious to the public good.

Across the UN systems national spokespeople are furthering work to address the procedural aspects of the TPPA including, negotiation, adoption and implementation, and the substantive impacts, focusing on their constitutionality and effects on democratic governance,

Is the Select Committee concerned that this diminution of proper process related to the Treaty together with:

• the foreshortening of the official time for preparing submissions,
• the reduced time available for the Select Committee report,
• the lack of time given to public consultation
• the secrecy of the process
• a public website which is little more than a marketing tool
• a National Interest Analysis which is incomplete in important respects, poorly drafted and impossible to understand

could place the whole edifice of the TPPA at risk as the concerns raised at the UN take shape into official United Nations policy over coming years?

References
Government seeking to stymie report on TPPA
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1604/S00251/government-seeking-to-stymie-report-on-tppa.htm
Alfred de Zayas addressing the Council of Europe “Investor-State dispute settlement undermines rule of law and democracy”

Investor-State dispute settlement undermines rule of law and democracy, UN expert tells Council of Europe

Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/IEInternationalorderIndex.aspx
UN General Assembly coverage of ISDS problems 2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/gashc4143.doc.htm