A World Bank tribunal has allowed a human rights group and a Peruvian lawyer to contribute to an arbitration initiated by a Canadian company whose rights to a silver mining project were rescinded, but nixed a similar application from a Columbia University-affiliated research center. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal decided in two July 21 orders that a submission by the Association of Human Rights and Environment of Puno, Peru, or DHUMA, and Dr. Carlos López-Hurtado would add a new perspective to the dispute that could help it decide on the facts of the case, which centers on the Peruvian government’s decision to rescind rights granted to Bear Creek Mining Co. for the Santa Ana mining project following social unrest. Peru had told the tribunal that the joint submission from DHUMA and López-Hurtado...presents a unique perspective of the indigenous communities that would have been directly affected by the Santa Ana project...and that the tribunal’s decision will have natural implications for the people of the area. The tribunal agreed, saying information from the joint submission could assist in its determination of certain factual or legal issues...