UNIONISTS and environmental activists have protested outside the World Bank in Sydney, accusing the organisation of siding with corporations who try to bypass national laws.
About 25 people gathered at Martin Place on Friday to rally against the World Bank's use of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
ICSID oversees investment disputes between national governments and global corporations.
It is currently hearing a case brought by Canadian mining company Pacific Rim against the government of El Salvador for refusing to issue it a mining permit on environmental grounds.
The Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) has called on the World Bank to cut its ties with ICSID.
"The World Bank is supposed to have programs that alleviate poverty in the world, but it's actually organising tribunals for corporations to sue governments and bypass laws," AFTINET convenor Dr Patricia Ranald said on Friday.
"ICSID is a shonky tribunal which corporations use to evade justice in national legal systems."
Dr Ranald compared the ICSID process to the one used by tobacco giant Philip Morris to sue the Australian government over its plain packaging laws in an offshore court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
United States-based activist Ron Carver, from the Institute of Policy Studies, said ICSID rulings often circumvented a country's environmental, labour and health protections.
"It is a kangaroo court," he said.
A World Bank spokesperson in Sydney said the organisation was happy to pass on the protesters' concerns to its headquarters in Washington.
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