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Friday, September 22, 2006
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Nature of the Case

Petition to access information and participate at investment arbitration tribunal. Right to act as amicus curiae when public interest and human rights are at stake.

Enforcement of the Decision and Outcomes

According to the Tribunal’s decision, the petitioning organizations should ask for permission to be accepted as amicus curiae and provide information, including but not limited to information about their identity and background, the nature of their interest in the case, the reasons why the Tribunal should accept the amicus curiae brief.

Significance of the Case

This decision is a fundamental precedent, because it is the first time that an arbitration tribunal working under the ICSID rules decides to accept the participation of civil society organizations as amicus curiae even though the parties (in this case, the companies) had opposed to it. On March 17 2006, in the case Aguas Provinciales de Santa Fe S.A. et al. v. República Argentina (ICSID Case ARB/03/17), the same tribunal confirmed this criterion and accepted the participation of third parties acting as amicus curiae (see case attached).

Groups Involved in the Case

Petitioners: Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ) (http://www.acij.org.ar), Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) (http://www.cels.org.ar), Centro para el Derecho Internacional Ambiental (CIEL) (http://www.ciel.org), Unión de Usuarios y Consumidores (http://www.usuarios.org.ar) and, Consumidores Libres Cooperativa Limitada de Provisión de Servicios de Acción Comunitaria.

Ruling