The ICSID Additional Facility Rules and Arbitration (Additional Facility) Rules do not contain a general presumption of confidentiality or transparency applicable to the parties. Instead, the parties may tailor the level of confidentiality or transparency to their proceedings.
The parties sometimes agree on the information and documents that they wish to keep confidential. Such confidentiality agreement is usually signed by the parties and adopted by the Tribunal in an order. The agreement may allow either party to designate documents as confidential, in part or whole, for use only in the arbitration. It may also allow for portions of documents introduced into the proceeding or issued by the Tribunal to be redacted before being made public.
Similarly, the parties could agree on greater transparency in the proceedings. For example, parties may agree to publish documents during the first session of the Tribunal or on a case by case basis. They may also agree to allow public access to hearings through web or video broadcasting or in person (Article 32(2) of the Arbitration (Additional Facility) Rules). ICSID posts an advance notice of hearings open to the public and details about access to such hearings. In those circumstances, measures are usually taken to protect proprietary or privileged information. The UNCITRAL Rules Annex on Transparency (for example by suspending the broadcast of a portion of the hearing dealing with sensitive information)