ICSID provides administrative support to the Tribunal, and a member of ICSID’s staff is appointed as the Secretary of the Tribunal in each arbitration proceeding. The Secretary offers a wide range of support and expertise concerning the ICSID procedure and is involved in all aspects of the process, including assistance at hearings.
In some cases, the Tribunal or Tribunal President also wish to retain an assistant for additional support to the Tribunal. Such an assistant may only be appointed with the prior consent of both parties to the dispute. The parties should be provided with the assistant’s curriculum vitae, proposed tasks to be performed, the hourly rate, the rate for days of hearing, and the mechanism for reimbursement of travel expenses. The assistant must file claims for fees and expenses separately from the Members of the Tribunal, and these fees and expenses will be disclosed in the financial statement of the case account at the end of the proceeding.
Tribunal assistants are subject to the same confidentiality obligations as the Members of the Tribunal and are also required to sign a declaration of independence and impartiality.