Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC). However, concerns were raised that the Government had not conducted any HRIA with respect to the TPPA. iii) Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) iv) CHAPTER 1 ISDS provisions enable foreign investors to challenge laws or policies of Governments if they believe that such laws or policies would diminish their future profits. Although ISDS is not only for foreign investors but also Malaysian investors who are increasingly looking outwards, concerns were raised that ISDS2 is an enforcement of the Investment Chapter and would serve to remind the Government that in the introduction of any new policy or law, it must take into consideration the impact on the profits of a company or investor from countries that are party to the TPPA. Meaningful Consultations with Stakeholders Since the initial stages of the Government’s involvement in the negotiation process of the TPPA, it was found that a major source of dissatisfaction among stakeholders was the lack of meaningful consultations. Concerns were raised that the dialogues and meetings conducted by the Government were merely briefing sessions, where no thorough discussions were held and no texts of the negotiations were made available. v) Insufficient Time to Discuss and Provide Comments It was noted that the actual text of the TPPA was released by the Government on 5 November 2015 and made available on the MITI website. However, the Government allowed not more than two months3 for the stakeholders to study the text, which contains 30 Chapters with 6,000 pages. vi) Difficulties in Understanding the TPPA Text The 30 Chapters of the TPPA are difficult to understand, even for the MPs themselves, which may defeat the very purpose of convening the Special Session of Parliament, which is to debate the provisions of the TPPA and their impact on the people and country. vii) Linkage between TPPA and SDGs At the UN Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, more than 150 countries including Malaysia adopted the new SDGs, which outlined 17 goals and 169 targets to address, among others, global climate 2 3 Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is a system through which individual companies can sue countries for alleged discriminatory practices. ISDS is an instrument of international public law and provisions are contained in several bilateral investment treaties. If an investor from one country (the “home state”) invests in another country (the “host state”), both of which have agreed to ISDS, and the host state violates the rights granted to the investor under public international law, then that investor may bring the matter before an arbitral tribunal. It was reported in the news that Parliament would convene a special session to debate the TPPA from 26 to 28 January 2016. SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2016 23 suhakam 2new.indd 23 3/23/17 5:54 PM