"Landmark Court Decision on Right to a Healthy Environment: La Oroya v Peru", 24 March 2024

...The Inter-American Court of Human Rights handed down a landmark decision on Friday, March 22, in a case involving allegations that more than a century of catastrophic industrial pollution from La Oroya Metallurgical Complex in Peru violated the right to a healthy environment. 

Generations of people in the community were poisoned by lead, arsenic and other toxic substances, resulting in a devastating array of physical and mental illnesses and in some cases, death. The Court concluded there were extensive human rights violations and ordered the State to provide specialized medical assistance to the victims, pay compensation for both material losses and pain and suffering, and publicly acknowledge its wrongdoing. 

...Peru was ordered to strengthen and strictly enforce environmental standards, rehabilitate damaged ecosystems, monitor air, water and soil quality, ensure that polluters pay for the environmental damage they cause. Finally, the State was ordered to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the extensive environmental damage, as well as those responsible for threats against environmental human rights defenders in La Oroya...

...There were 80 named victims, but the Court also recognized the collective nature of the right to a healthy environment in reaching its decision and crafting its extensive orders. Obviously, the extensive pollution, covering more than 2,300 square kilometers, harmed more than just 80 people...

The metallurgical complex had been operated by a combination of public and private businesses. The Court reiterated that the obligations of the State regarding human rights violations caused by all business enterprises are to “prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuses through appropriate policies, regulatory activities and prosecution” (para. 110)...