Ecuador to pay $24 million to Canadian mining company for cancelling permit for human rights reasons without due process
"Ecuador ordered by PCA tribunal to pay $24 million to Canadian mining company", 12 Dec 2016
A tribunal under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) constituted under the Canada–Ecuador Agreement...ordered Ecuador to compensate a Canadian company for expropriation of two mineral concessions...[A]n increasing number of local residents concerned about the deleterious impacts of mining organized to resist the activity...Ecuador’s Constituent Assembly passed legislation...which...provided for the termination “without economic compensation” of mining concessions...Ecuador’s Under-Secretary of Mines ordered the termination of the Junín and Chaucha concessions due to a lack of prior consultation with the local residents...[T]he tribunal indicated..that Ecuador had not made a single complaint as regards...human rights to the claimant prior to the commencement of arbitration. For the tribunal, it was then much too late...With regards to expropriation, Ecuador contended that the Mining Mandate was a measure issued by the state in exercise of its legitimate regulatory authority and responding to a compelling public policy consideration, that is, the need to consult the affected local population, and seeking to address many unsolved social, economic and environmental issues...[T]he tribunal decided that they were “...these Resolutions were made...without due process,”...