The Andean Town That Took Its Poisoning to an International Court

La Oroya sits in a narrow Andean valley at 3,700 metres where a metallurgical complex has processed lead, copper and zinc since 1922, with the valley walls holding the fumes over the town. AIDA began working on the case in 1997, filed with the Inter-American Commission in 2006, and carried it all the way to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ruled on 22 March 2024 that Peru was responsible for violating the right to a healthy environment — the first time the court had done so in a pollution case. The judgment covers 80 named victims but orders collective reparations too: halt the harmful emissions, clean the soil and water, provide specialised medical care to any resident showing symptoms, and support relocation for those who want it. More than a year on, residents say the reparations have not arrived and the smelter has restarted, which is why the case is still live rather than a historical footnote.