On 10 December (Human Rights Day) 2020, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation in Ecuador, Acción Ecológica, along with the Union of People Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT) and members of the Waorani Indigenous People filed a lawsuit in Ecuador against state-owned Chinese oil company PetroOriental S.A. They claim that the company's practice of burning the underground gas released during oil drilling as 'gas flares' is contributing to climate change, bringing about irreversible damage to ecological balance and threatening the health and quality of life of indigenous peoples.

According to FIDH, "...Article 71 of the Ecuadorian Constitution states that "The Nature or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and realized, has the right to have its existence fully respected and to the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes". In this sense, the alteration of natural cycles as a consequence of climate change constitutes a violation of the rights to nature recognized in the Constitution of Ecuador."

The legal action is brought as protection proceedings, a type of constitutional action that seek the urgent protection of constitutional rights that have allegedly been violated.

According to FIDH, "The present action must be differentiated from a traditional action for environmental damage. It calls for a broader protection of the constitutional rights of peoples and nature, which are threatened by the local effects of climate change, to which gas flaring and venting activities directly contribute."

For more information on this case, see FIDH 'Questions And Answers: What Are The Facts That Give Rise To This Action? here.