Human Rights Trade-Offs in a Context of “Systemic Lack of Freedom”: The Case of the Smelter Town of La Oroya, Peru

Abstract

This article offers an analytical account of the human rights trade-offs faced by residents of La Oroya, Peru. The community is confronted with the dilemma of having to sacrifice its human right to health in order to preserve job opportunities at the town's smelter, which is the main source of environmental pollution. The article demonstrates how traditional mechanisms to assess human rights trade-offs fail to fully assess the predicament of the La Oroya community and offers an alternative analytical lens titled a “Human Rights Systemic Model.” By applying this model, this article reveals how a constellation of institutional, social, environmental, and personal factors structure a context of systemic lack of freedom in La Oroya. In particular, the article explains how such a context creates the fundamental conditions for the La Oroya community members to forfeit their own rights and how it diminishes people's agency to collectively defend their human rights.