Chevron: Ecuador Court Rejects The Opinion Of The Hague Tribunal

The Court of Justice of Sucumbios rejected the provision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, an Ecuadorian ruling ordering the U.S. oil company Chevron to pay 18,000 million dollars as compensation for polluting Amazon area.

“Recognizing that the award is based on international standards created for the purpose of protecting investments, we find no place to enforce the arbitration award beyond our obligations prevailing human rights” said Ecuadorians affected by pollution.

“We can’t just obey the claims of Chevron or the Arbitral Tribunal and to stop doing the functions for which we have been positioned” says the document, which adds that “a single award, even if it is binding on Ecuador, can’t force its judges to violate human rights of our citizens.”

On Thursday, the Permanent Court at The Hague ordered Ecuador to take “all necessary measures to suspend or cause the suspension of the execution and recognition within and outside of Ecuador with the judgments of the Chamber Single of the Provincial Court of Sucumbios, January 3, 2012 and January 13, 2012 ” against Chevron.

(MS)