A/HRC/30/44 or cluster bombs because contrary to international humanitarian law, thus “expropriating” expected profits of the arms industry. 30. It is not just a question of reforming the investor–State dispute settlement system for the future, but imperative to review and revise existing bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements, which were never intended to become prisons for States. If investor–State dispute settlement and ICSID have since mutated into institutions of economic coercion, they must be dismantled and reinvented through the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. IV. Normative framework 31. Although bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements have been on the international agenda for decades, their human rights impacts have been underreported. Apparently the siren call of potential profit and the over-optimistic forecasts promising GDP growth and significant creation of jobs have been so seductive to some governments that human rights considerations have been neglected and State functions compromised. 32. Among the sources of law recognized by the International Court of Justice are the general principles of law (art. 38 (1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice) which inform both national and international legal orders. Among those fundamental principles is good faith (bona fide), which has been incorporated into the civil codes and Constitutions of many States, and means that the law must be coherent and cannot be used antithetically to destroy rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines this principle in article 30, which is reflected in article 5 of the two Covenants. Other relevant general principles of law include the principles of proportionality, foreseeability, rebus sic stantibus, clean hands, estoppel (ex injuria non oritur jus), the prohibition of abuse of rights, entrapment and the prohibition of treaties or contracts that are contra bonos mores. 33. Most States have enshrined in their Constitution and legislation the concept of ordre public. A government that compromises its competence to defend and protect the interests of the persons living under its jurisdiction betrays its raison d’être and loses its democratic legitimacy. 34. The large body of existing human rights treaties, protocols and declarations create a constitutional framework that must be taken into account whenever a State enters into agreements with other States and/or private-sector actors, including financial institutions and transnational enterprises. The human rights regime, including international and regional human rights treaties and the relevant ILO and WHO Conventions, must be treated as superior to other agreements, including bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements. National courts and international tribunals and arbitration instances must be subordinated to this regime. 35. Among the rights that States must ensure are the rights to life, security of person, participation in the conduct of public affairs, homeland, movement, health, education, employment and social security. These commitments are enshrined, inter alia, in articles 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, 17, 25, 26, 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 36. The process of elaboration, negotiation and adoption of bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements must conform with the requirement of article 25 (a) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to ensure participation by all stakeholders. This entails a proactive obligation on the part of Governments to disclose the necessary information and facilitate public participation. Access to information is an 13