Nullity of the Chevron Award: The Attorney General of the State has initiated the appeal process of the sentence!
Quito, 16 December 2020.
What does that mean? On 15 December 2020, the Attorney General of the State, representing the interests of Ecuador, notified Chevron of its decision to appeal against the judgment of the Hague District Court of 16 September 2020, Netherlands, which rejected the application for annulment of the second partial judgment in this case. The action seeks to reverse the decision in the first instance and, therefore, to insist on the request for annulment of the arbitration award which determined the State’s liability in favor of that undertaking.
This victory, although still partial, is part of a legal battle that has lasted for almost 30 years and came following a press release and an open letter to President Lenin Moreno, presented by UDAPT with the support of more than 240 organizations, networks, movements, and unions, representing more than 285 million people internationally.
Read the original text in Spanish HERE
Here you can read the translation of the Press Release and the Open Letter thanks to the wonderful translation job of Alessia Tonin:
PRESS RELEASE
As a sign of solidarity towards the tens of thousands of people affected by the biggest environmental disaster in the Ecuadorian Amazon, more than 240 organizations, networks, movements, and unions, representing more than 285 million people internationally, are asking the Ecuadorian government to appeal to the Dutch judiciary against the arbitration decision that favors the oil company Chevron.
The ruling issued on August 30, 2018 orders Ecuador to annul the ruling in the case of Lago Agrio, despite the fact that it has been ratified by all Ecuadorian judicial bodies, including the Constitutional Court; and prevent those affected from seeking execution of the ruling and reparation for the damages caused by Chevron-Texaco in other countries. Furthermore, it demands Ecuador to compensate the oil company for having “affected its image” and for the judicial costs of the 27 years long proceedings.
If the government of the Andean country does not appeal, this ruling, which violates its own Constitution and is therefore inapplicable, will be executed. If the Dutch justice system persists in confirming it, it will be part of a private international arbitration system that systematically favors multinational corporations, denying justice to those affected by corporate crimes.
This case has generated great concern at the international level. If Ecuador does not appeal, it will set an important precedent that will ensure the impunity of transnational corporations for violations of human rights, the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, and damage to nature.
The “Campaña Global para reivindicar la soberanía de los Pueblos, desmantelar el poder corporativo y poner fin a la impunidad“, which engages more than 240 social, indigenous, and peasant organizations, networks, and unions from different countries, representing more than 285 million people, prompts Ecuador to appeal the first instance sentence in the Dutch justice system, before December 16, 2020. The Ecuadorian government must keep the door open to hope for access to justice for the indigenous and peasant communities of the Amazon, after decades of struggle for the common good.
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR
In Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Communities against Chevron: Open Letter to the President of Ecuador
December 11, 2020
December 16, 2020, is the deadline for the Ecuadorian state to reject or accept a judgment of a Dutch court, which has to do with the action for annulment of the arbitration award issued by a private international panel based in the Netherlands, in favor of Chevron.
This action orders Ecuador to render null and void the judgment ratified by all the judicial instances and to prevent the indigenous and peasant communities, affected by the oil operations of the transnational, from being able to execute the Ecuadorian judgment for the reparation of damages caused in the Amazon region. If the Ecuadorian state accepts the Dutch ruling, it should compensate Chevron with a multimillion-dollar sum for the “damages caused to its image and the costs of the years of lawsuits against it”. In addition, it should intercede before other courts to prevent Chevron-Texaco’s plaintiffs from filing lawsuits against it in other countries. If the government of Ecuador does not appeal this decision, the arbitration award remains firm, despite the fact that in May 2019, more than 260 organizations and social networks representing more than 280 million international members had denounced this decision as illegal and unconstitutional. The verdict would end hopes of justice on the part of those affected and would consolidate the ISDS (Investor-state dispute settlement) system, endangering the rule of law.
Twenty-seven years ago, the communities living in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbíos, initiated a process against the transnational/multinational oil company Texaco (now ChevronTexaco) for the cultural, health, and environmental damages that the transnational caused while operating in Ecuador. After a prolonged trial, the Ecuadorian justice system ruled in favor of the inhabitants of the Amazon, grouped in the Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (Unión de Afectados/afectadas por las operaciones petroleras de Texaco, UDAPT). Chevron has resorted to all kinds of maneuvers inside and outside of Ecuador to evade its responsibility. The most recent was the nullity action that Ecuador brought before the Dutch justice system, without success in the first instance. However, Ecuador has the right to appeal that decision and even go as far as the Dutch Supreme Court. UDAPT has submitted a letter to the prosecutor’s office in this regard. However, the government of Ecuador has not yet shown any intention of appealing.
If the government of Ecuador subordinates itself to the orders of the arbitration tribunal and the Dutch justice system, its decision would have serious and dire consequences. In the first place, it would legally make the struggle of more than 30,000 Amazonian inhabitants to obtain justice vain, since the much-discussed tribunal is asking that the claims against the oil company be presented “on an individual basis”.
If the Dutch court’s ruling is not appealed before December 16, the Ecuadorian government would be ceding its sovereignty as a state in favor of a private international justice system, that is, it would violate the Ecuadorian Constitution. In addition, it would be helping to shield Texaco’s rights, reinforcing the impunity of corporations and allowing pressure and threats against plaintiffs to increase, as has happened over the years. As for the Dutch Court, it must be emphasized that if it does not change its attitude, it will become complicit in the violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples, and in the strengthening of corporate impunity through an arbitration award that implies that states violate their own constitutions. Therefore, the decision would be unenforceable by the Ecuadorian government without violating its constitution.
President Lenin Moreno, it is still time for your government to reject the Dutch court’s ruling and file an appeal. At the end of the year, you and your government have in your hands the possibility of bringing justice to the affected indigenous and peasant communities of Texaco and to safeguard the sovereignty of Ecuador. We urge you to appeal the Dutch ruling so as not to set a precedent in favor of corporate impunity in the world and not to close the door to the hope of Ecuadorian communities in their long battle for justice and reparation.
You can also read this article in Italian on the next page
