-- An international human rights court has agreed to hear the claims of the Ecuadorian indigenous rainforest communities who recently won an $18 billion judgment against the American oil company Chevron for its poisoning of their ancestral lands.

In a letter sent to the lawyers for the communities, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights asked for more information about the harms being suffered in Ecuador due to Chevron's contamination. The letter responded to a petition filed Feb. 9 by the communities.

"This is yet another step for the rainforest communities in their historic effort to hold Chevron accountable for its human rights abuses in Ecuador," said Pablo Fajardo.