César Rodríguez Garavito, Director of the Climate Law Accelerator (CLX) and the Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA) Program at NYU Law, submitted an amicus brief to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador on the Court’s Yasuní judgment and the Ecuadorian government’s recent petition requesting an extension of more than five years. The extension, if granted, would allow a state-run oil company to continue extraction activities despite an August 2023 referendum (consulta popular) in which more than half of 10 million voters called to halt oil drilling in the national park.
The brief supports full and timely compliance with the results of the referendum and with the Court’s verifying judgment, which required cessation of oil drilling within one year. It highlights Ecuador’s historic role in countering the triple planetary crisis and the central role of the Constitutional Court in ensuring the substantive guarantee of direct democracy.