Project

Protecting the health of La Oroya's residents from toxic pollution

For more than 20 years, residents of La Oroya have been seeking justice and reparations after a metallurgical complex caused heavy metal pollution in their community—in violation of their fundamental rights—and the government failed to take adequate measures to protect them.

On March 22, 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the case. It found Peru responsible and ordered it to adopt comprehensive reparation measures. This decision is a historic opportunity to restore the rights of the victims, as well as an important precedent for the protection of the right to a healthy environment in Latin America and for adequate state oversight of corporate activities.

Background

La Oroya is a small city in Peru’s central mountain range, in the department of Junín, about 176 km from Lima. It has a population of around 30,000 inhabitants.

There, in 1922, the U.S. company Cerro de Pasco Cooper Corporation installed the La Oroya Metallurgical Complex to process ore concentrates with high levels of lead, copper, zinc, silver and gold, as well as other contaminants such as sulfur, cadmium and arsenic.

The complex was nationalized in 1974 and operated by the State until 1997, when it was acquired by the US Doe Run Company through its subsidiary Doe Run Peru. In 2009, due to the company's financial crisis, the complex's operations were suspended.

Decades of damage to public health

The Peruvian State - due to the lack of adequate control systems, constant supervision, imposition of sanctions and adoption of immediate actions - has allowed the metallurgical complex to generate very high levels of contamination for decades that have seriously affected the health of residents of La Oroya for generations.

Those living in La Oroya have a higher risk or propensity to develop cancer due to historical exposure to heavy metals. While the health effects of toxic contamination are not immediately noticeable, they may be irreversible or become evident over the long term, affecting the population at various levels. Moreover, the impacts have been differentiated —and even more severe— among children, women and the elderly.

Most of the affected people presented lead levels higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization and, in some cases, higher levels of arsenic and cadmium; in addition to stress, anxiety, skin disorders, gastric problems, chronic headaches and respiratory or cardiac problems, among others.

The search for justice

Over time, several actions were brought at the national and international levels to obtain oversight of the metallurgical complex and its impacts, as well as to obtain redress for the violation of the rights of affected people.

AIDA became involved with La Oroya in 1997 and, since then, we’ve employed various strategies to protect public health, the environment and the rights of its inhabitants.

In 2002, our publication La Oroya Cannot Wait helped to make La Oroya's situation visible internationally and demand remedial measures.

That same year, a group of residents of La Oroya filed an enforcement action against the Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Environmental Health to protect their rights and those of the rest of the population.

In 2006, they obtained a partially favorable decision from the Constitutional Court that ordered protective measures. However, after more than 14 years, no measures were taken to implement the ruling and the highest court did not take action to enforce it.

Given the lack of effective responses at the national level, AIDA —together with an international coalition of organizations— took the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and in November 2005 requested measures to protect the right to life, personal integrity and health of the people affected. In 2006, we filed a complaint with the IACHR against the Peruvian State for the violation of the human rights of La Oroya residents.

In 2007, in response to the petition, the IACHR granted protection measures to 65 people from La Oroya and in 2016 extended them to another 15.

Current Situation

To date, the protection measures granted by the IACHR are still in effect. Although the State has issued some decisions to somewhat control the company and the levels of contamination in the area, these have not been effective in protecting the rights of the population or in urgently implementing the necessary actions in La Oroya.

Although the levels of lead and other heavy metals in the blood have decreased since the suspension of operations at the complex, this does not imply that the effects of the contamination have disappeared because the metals remain in other parts of the body and their impacts can appear over the years. The State has not carried out a comprehensive diagnosis and follow-up of the people who were highly exposed to heavy metals at La Oroya. There is also a lack of an epidemiological and blood study on children to show the current state of contamination of the population and its comparison with the studies carried out between 1999 and 2005.

The case before the Inter-American Court

As for the international complaint, in October 2021 —15 years after the process began— the IACHR adopted a decision on the merits of the case and submitted it to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after establishing the international responsibility of the Peruvian State in the violation of human rights of residents of La Oroya.

The Court heard the case at a public hearing in October 2022. More than a year later, on March 22, 2024, the international court issued its judgment. In its ruling, the first of its kind, it held Peru responsible for violating the rights of the residents of La Oroya and ordered the government to adopt comprehensive reparation measures, including environmental remediation, reduction and mitigation of polluting emissions, air quality monitoring, free and specialized medical care, compensation, and a resettlement plan for the affected people.

Partners:


Peru’s Constitutional Court to hear case on Amazonian oil spills

The Court expects to resolve an amparo that communities of the Peruvian Amazon filed requesting the maintenance of the Norperuvian oil pipeline to prevent further spills. The lawsuit was supported with arguments on the international obligations of the Peruvian State to guarantee the rights to a dignified life and a healthy environment, among others.   Lima, Peru. The Constitutional Court can stop the oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon and, with them, the systematic violation of the fundamental human rights of the indigenous peoples who live there. On Thursday, March 4, the Court is scheduled to hear and resolve an amparo filed by community members from Quebrada de Cuninico, Urarinas district of Loreto province, demanding the maintenance of the Norperuano oil pipeline, which would prevent new spills. In 2014, due to a leak in the pipeline, 2,500 barrels of oil were spilled into the creek, which negatively impacted the health and natural environment of the native communities of San Francisco, Nueva Esperanza, Cuninico and Santa Rosa. The unconstitutional amparo, filed in June 2018 with support from the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), seeks a final judicial decision requiring the state-owned company Petroperu to oversee and monitor the operations of the Norperuvian Pipeline, the longest in the country, as well as to maintain all its pipelines in safe working order to prevent further spills. "It is urgent that the Peruvian authorities put an end to this structural problem that has affected the Peruvian Amazon for decades," said Juan Carlos Ruiz, IDL's lawyer. Recently, the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) presented an amicus brief supporting the communities’ demand, using international human rights law to outline the State’s obligation to guarantee the adoption of administrative, legal, political and cultural measures necessary to protect the rights to a dignified life and a healthy environment. "The Amazon is an indispensable ecosystem for conserving the planet's climate," said Liliana Avila, coordinator of AIDA's Human Rights and Environment Program. "In contexts of climate crisis, the protection of this ecosystem and the indigenous peoples who inhabit it is an urgent and vital mandate." The brief also highlights the toxicity of oil to the environment and the duties of the Peruvian State and Petroperu to guarantee the health and integrity of those most vulnerable to hazardous substances, such as children, women and traditional communities. "There is evidence that the oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon, which directly affect indigenous peoples, are mostly caused by the corrosion of pipelines," says Connie Espinoza, Regional Technical Coordinator of the All Eyes on the Amazon Program (TOA). "The volume spilled is so large that se are finding it impossible to attend to all the remediation needs derived from each and every spill." According to The Shadow of Oil, an OXFAM report, pipeline corrosion and operational failures caused 65 percent of the 474 spills that occurred in Amazonian oil lots and in the Norperuvian Pipeline between 2000 and 2019—which affected the territory of 41 indigenous peoples—, while third parties caused just 28 percent. Pipeline operators are responsible for the vast majority of spills. The document also shows that, of the 2,000 sites impacted and contaminated by oil activity in Block 192, only 32 were prioritized for remediation, and that the volume of contamination, on average, would fill 231 national soccer stadiums. The lack of maintenance of the Norperuvian oil pipeline gravely impacts the Peruvian Amazon and violates the fundamental rights of native communities to enjoy a balanced environment, health, physical integrity, natural resources, territory and other rights of constitutional importance. press contacts: Gerardo Saravia, IDL, +51 997 574 695, gerardosaravialopez2001@gmail.com Nora Sánchez, HIVOS, +593 99 821 5617, nsanchez@hivos.org Victor Quintanilla, AIDA, +521 5570522107, vquintanilla@aida-americas.org  

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Coral reefs, Oceans, Human Rights

Reaffirming the legitimate protection of the right to a healthy environment

In December 2016, two women from Veracruz decided to defend the Veracruz Reef System in court. They sought to protect the largest coral ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico from the expansion of the port of Veracruz, which would cause serious and irreversible impacts on the reef’s biodiversity and, by extension, the local population.  Residents of the Veracruz metropolitan area, represented by the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), filed an injunction against the project because its environmental permit resulted from a fragmented impact assessment that did not consider the full range of risks to the reefs. AIDA supported our partners at CEMDA by filing an amicus brief with detailed information on the important services the reefs provide: sequestering carbon, generating oxygen, producing food, and protecting coastal areas from storms and hurricanes, among others. In April 2017, the court that heard the case rejected the injunction and, with it, the request to suspend work on the port expansion. The court argued that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the project had "a real and relevant impact" on their rights and that they lacked a "legitimate interest" in the case. Legitimate interest—also known as legal standing—refers to a person’s capacity to claim damages before a court of law, in any scope. In a traffic accident, for example, only you have the legitimate interest to claim the damages your vehicle may have suffered, which must be individual and quantifiable. However, in matters of environmental damage, the situation is more complex. The degradation of an ecosystem affects more than one person and even transcends generations.  The residents of Veracruz appealed the judicial setback and their case arrived before Mexico’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Given the lower court’s limitations in recognizing in its ruling the right of all people to equal access to justice in environmental matters, AIDA and Earthjustice filed a second legal brief before the Supreme Court, requesting an expansion of the requirements for legitimate interest. We provided legal and technical evidence regarding the human right to a healthy environment and access to justice, enshrined in international law. These rights mean that the Mexican government must ensure that anyone whose fundamental rights are threatened by environmental degradation has the possibility of achieving justice, regardless of whether their connection to the threatened ecosystem is indirect or remote. The Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide also contributed a brief that analyzes court decisions from various jurisdictions recognizing the right of any person, civil society organization, or local resident to file lawsuits against projects and decisions that may negatively affect the environment. Finally, on February 9, 2022, more than five years after the original lawsuit was filed, the residents of Veracruz won an important victory for the area’s reefs. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court found that government authorities violated the right to a healthy environment of the people of Veracruz by authorizing the port’s expansion. Since it was unopposed, the ruling creates a binding precedent for all courts of the nation. The Veracruz decision is a landmark ruling, valuable for not just Mexico but for the entire region because it: Ratifies that proximity to a project does not define who the affected people are or who can claim protection of their right to a healthy environment before the courts. Reaffirms that it is not necessary to prove quantifiable and individualized damage in order to have access to environmental justice; it is sufficient to demonstrate that a project or activity, by degrading an ecosystem, damages or threatens to cause damage (economic, social, cultural, health, etc.) to a community. Recognizes an expanded legitimate interest, as well as the collective nature of the right to a healthy environment and public participation in environmental assessment processes. Sets a precedent with the capacity to transform the way in which environmental impact assessments are carried out in Mexico, incorporating the principles of prevention and precaution. Points to Mexico's international obligations, including those acquired under the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (Escazú Agreement). As an organization and individuals, we are celebrating this important step toward strengthening the defense of the right to a healthy environment in the region. We are proud to have contributed to this achievement, and hopeful that the implementation of the ruling will be carried out according to the highest standards.  

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Climate litigation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Launching a regional platform

By Maria Antonia Tigre, Florencia Ortúzar and Javier Dávalos* With the largest rainforest in the world, the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and the most significant amount of arable land where food is produced, the importance of Latin America and the Caribbean in the fight against climate change is undeniable. Unfortunately, however, the region is also highly vulnerable to the damaging effects of the climate crisis, despite not being significant emitters of greenhouse gasses. As a result, human and environmental rights are being threatened in a context where defenders are constantly at risk. Sadly, the region has been recognized as the most dangerous for environmental and human rights defenders. Strategic climate litigation has slowly grown in the region as a critical tool to complement the work for the defense of the environment, the territory, and the protection of the rights of peoples and communities. Litigating in the Global South and Latin America is different from litigating in the Global North, with particular challenges that must be addressed strategically. Cases in some of the most dangerous countries for environmental defenders might render them more vulnerable to attacks and threats. A lack of resources might leave plaintiffs, who bravely stand up for the cause, unprotected, and not only from violence but from subtler maladies, such as emotional stress or stigmatization. Another huge obstacle is the grave corruption that affects the region, which implies excessive power for extractive companies. Corruption is a widespread and deeply rooted phenomenon, especially in multimillion-dollar industries such as fossil fuels and extractivism. There’s a risk that companies or governments might co-opt academics, and proving and battling corruption is extremely difficult and dangerous. Finally, one of the most severe obstacles to making climate litigation effective in Latin America and the Caribbean is the difficulty litigators face when implementing favorable decisions. LAC presents some encouraging but at the same time alarming statistics around climate litigation. Although the vast majority of cases that have been resolved so far have had favorable decisions, the implementation of these has, so far, been unsatisfactory. There is much to be done on this front, including identifying administrative deficiencies of States that influence the difficulty of enforcing decisions; and considering, from the planning stage of cases, which remedies are sought and how implementation will be demanded. Despite these challenges, climate litigation is already showing the power it beholds in promoting change. In Peru, a group of young people sued the government for failing to formulate and execute a national policy and plan to curb deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon (Álvarez et al. v Peru). In Colombia, the Wayúu indigenous communities promoted an action to annul the environmental permit of a colossal coal mine (Mina Cerrejon). In Mexico, Greenpeace promoted an injunction to stop atmospheric pollution and improve air quality in the State of Mexico (Greenpeace v Secretaría de Medio Ambiente). In Argentina, the Organización de Ambientalistas Organizados demanded that the Ministry of Environment halts the approval of offshore exploration of fossil fuels for its impacts on whales and climate change (Organización de Ambientalistas Organizados v Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development). In Ecuador, a group of nine girls questions the Ecuadorian State for authorizing oil companies to burn gas in the Ecuadorian Amazon (Caso Mecheros). In Chile, the NGO Defensoría Ambiental sued the government and all the companies operating in an emblematic sacrifice zone for the environmental damage caused after years of operations (Daño Ambiental en Ventanas). And these are only some examples.     The Climate Litigation Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean has been created in this context. The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), a regional NGO that uses the law to protect the environment and the human rights of communities, has been leading the effort in close collaboration with regional organizations and litigators who have been behind some of the cases in the region. AIDA launched the platform in a webinar, the recording of the event is available here. The Platform, which is maintained in Spanish, offers information on the judicial cases in the region that use climate arguments in a friendly and intuitive manner. It also includes a section of downloadable resources that might be useful for stakeholders who are planning on using the law to advance their cases. The goal is to promote more cases and better outcomes. Thus, the Platform is a tool to deliver, share strategies, experiences, and arguments on climate litigation, help create and strengthen alliances and facilitate contact between people who work in favor of the environment and climate. This initiative emanates from a collaboration with different organizations. It is a cross-cutting and participatory initiative that feeds on collective work. AIDA’s initiative fits well within the collaborative endeavors of the Sabin Center. In December 2021, the Sabin Center launched the Peer Review Network of Global Climate Litigation to enhance the field of study and practice in climate litigation and ensure broad and equal geographic representation in our Global Climate Litigation Database. The Network includes national rapporteurs who help us ensure the database is comprehensive and up-to-date. In addition, the Sabin Center is continuously partnering with regional initiatives that specifically analyze climate litigation within a national or regional context. As part of this ongoing effort, the Sabin Center has partnered with AIDA to share information and facilitate the exchange between collaborators of the two projects. The launch of this regional Climate Litigation Platform is not only great news for Latin America and the Caribbean but also for the whole active global community that uses the Courts in favor of the planet. Visit the Platform   *Maria Antonia Tigre is Global Climate Litigation Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Florencia Ortúzar is a senior attorney at AIDA and Javier Dávalos is coordinator of AIDA's Climate Program.  

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