The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Friday condemned Peru for violating the right of residents of an Andean mining town to a “healthy environment,” in a ruling that prosecutors described as “historic.”
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In its ruling, the court criticized the Peruvian state for “violating the rights to a healthy environment, to health, to personal safety, to a dignified life, to access to information, to political participation, and to judicial guarantees and judicial protection of citizens.” At the expense of 80 victims in the case.
Located 175 km east of Lima and at an altitude of 3,750 metres, La Oroya was ranked in 2006 among the ten most polluted cities in the world due to the activities of a mineral complex that over the years processed copper, zinc, lead, silver and copper. Gold and even selenium from nearby mines.
The residents of this city of 20,000 have been suffering for decades from chronic exposure to heavy metals, according to the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit before the Inter-American Court, an institution affiliated with the Organization of American States, on the advice of non-governmental organizations.
For the court, based in Costa Rica, “the right to a healthy environment constitutes a universal interest and a right fundamental to the existence of humanity,” and the activities of the La Oroya Mineral Complex (CMLO) have subverted it.
According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in 2013, 97% of children in La Oroya aged six months to six years and 98% of those aged seven to twelve years had high levels of lead in the body.
The court ordered Peru to conduct a diagnosis of air, water and soil pollution in the city, provide free medical care to victims and bring regulations into line with accepted standards regarding lead, sulfur dioxide, arsenic and mercury, among others. Other measures.
The Inter-American Environmental Defense Association (AIDA), which advised the 17 La Oroya families who petitioned the court, called the ruling “historic,” saying it sets “an essential precedent for protecting the right to a healthy environment around the world.” The American continent.
