Rights court condemns Peru over one of world's most polluted towns

San Jos :The Inter American Court of Human Rights said Friday that Peru had violated residents right to live in a healthy environment in an Andean...

San José: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights said Friday that Peru had violated residents' "right to live in a healthy environment" in an Andean mining town that is considered one of the most polluted places on earth.

The Andean city of La Oroya, situated in a high-altitude valley at 3,750 meters (12,300 feet), is home to a heavy metal smelter that has poisoned residents and the environment for almost a century.

In 2006, La Oroya residents sued the Peruvian government at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for allowing the company to pollute at will.

Since then, the town has often featured on lists of the most polluted places on the planet, rubbing shoulders with sites like Ukraine's nuclear-sullied Chernobyl and Russia's Dzerzhinsk, the site of Cold War-era factories producing chemical weapons.

In its ruling, which is binding, the Costa Rica-based court blamed the Peruvian State "for the violation of the rights to a healthy environment, health, personal integrity, a dignified life... in detriment of the 80 victims" who filed the lawsuit.