<p><em>La Oroya</em> and Inter-American Innovations on the Right to a Healthy Environment</p>

Abstract

In La Oroya v. Peru, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared Peru responsible for violating several rights, including the right to a healthy environment, due to the environmental degradation and health crises in La Oroya—one of the world’s most polluted cities. Regarding the right to a healthy environment, the Court addresses for the first time pollution in air, water, and soil—marking a departure from previous cases that primarily focused on communal property rights and deforestation—and even goes as far as to refer to the right to a healthy environment as jus cogens. Such innovations would have not been possible without the ever-expanding horizon of Inter-American case law and approaches.

Keywords

• IACHR
• Interamerikanischer Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte | San José (Costa Rica)
• Pollution
• Right to a healthy environment
• environmental law
• environmental policy