Human rights tradeoffs in times of economic growth

6 were published as “Human Rights Trade-offs Human Rights Trade-offs in a Context of ‘Systemic Lack of Freedom’: The Case of the Smelter Town of La Oroya, Peru” in the Journal of Human R

The Long-Term Capability Impacts

of Extractive-Led Development

HUMAN RIGHTS TRADE-OFFS

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Human Rights Trade-

Offs in Times of

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The Long-Term Capability Impacts of Extractive- Led Development

Latin American Political Economy

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48868-8

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Human Rights Research

and Education Centre (HRREC)

University of Ottawa

Ontario , Canada

For the time I took from you to fi nish this book

Never become indifferent to the injustices of this world

To the children of La Oroya, With the hope you will be able to build a different history for yourselves

In August 2015, smelter workers and their supporters heaped tires, rocks, and tree trunks onto a key highway in the Peruvian Andes, holding up traffi c for miles The protest, at times violent, was sparked by the efforts of creditors to auction off a bankrupt smelter operation located in the nearby city of La Oroya The smelter in La Oroya is notorious around the globe for the extraordinary levels of pollution it has caused, with severe impacts

on soil, water, and air quality in the surrounding area and on the health

of residents Frighteningly high levels of heavy metal in the blood of dren are a particular concern Most would agree that this by itself is an understandable reason to blockade traffi c The workers, however, were

chil-protesting against the Peruvian government’s imposition of environmental

requirements on the operation of the smelter The workers blamed the strictness of the regulatory standards for the failure of the auction to attract new investors They feared that their livelihoods would vanish as a result of the impending liquidation

How can we understand these “voices from below”? Their demands, if met, would in the long run have disastrous impacts on their own health and that of their families The soil and rivers of the area, already contaminated with heavy metals, would become further poisoned and unusable High levels of particulate matter would render the air dangerous to breathe The contradiction implicit in the story of the protest can be formulated

as one between jobs and wellbeing, economic development and mental sustainability, or the human rights to work and to health From whatever angle, it appears intractable and deeply entrenched The fact that the voices of the protestors are both clear and forceful prevents any

environ-easy dismissal of their demands as simply the result of obfuscation “from above” by greedy corporations and corrupt governments

By using the situation in La Oroya as her central example, Areli Valencia sets out to help us unravel the contradictory elements in controversies that too often follow upon the promises of a “good life” offered by the actors—both public and private—who seek to develop our resources I have no doubt that we have all, in our own corners of the world, encoun-tered the conundrums on which Valencia focuses The Central Andean region of Peru seems far away from the west coast of Canada where I write this Preface Yet it is easy to fi nd echoes of the story of La Oroya’s struggle in the debates I read in  local media about the construction of pipelines and tanker terminals to move crude oil from Alberta to the coast for export abroad, about the contamination of waterways in northern British Columbia by collapsed tailings ponds associated with copper and gold mining ventures, or about the grant of permits for logging on lands

on which indigenous communities have traditionally sustained selves by hunting and fi shing, and which have cultural as well as economic signifi cance to them In all of these stories, the tension between promised and much-needed employment and impacts on the health of ecosystems and their inhabitants seems, inevitably, to require a trade-off

Valencia views such trade-offs as politically and ethically unacceptable Her aspirations are both practical and theoretically ambitious She aims to provide an analytical approach that will allow policy makers and regulators

to formulate a way forward that is grounded in the voices and values of communities and their members, and that achieves justice for them This

is a tall order, especially as the communities with which Valencia is most concerned are often in desperate economic straits and are deeply divided along a number of social dimensions To achieve her objective, Valencia draws on a range of literatures and disciplines to craft her Human Rights Systemic Analytical Model (HRSAM)

As a Peruvian-trained constitutional lawyer, Valencia is well acquainted with both the persuasive power and the disappointing emptiness of human rights language She builds on the themes and approaches in human rights discourses that emphasize attention to structural and historical injustices, and that have been taken up and invigorated by social justice movements Into this core commitment to understanding human rights

in terms of broadly based political and economic structures in which all

of us, advantaged and disadvantaged alike, are implicated, Valencia grates a tailored version of Amartya Sen’s capability framework She draws

inte-on the capability literature to foreground those aspects of the framework that facilitate attention to both individual and collective conceptions of wellbeing and experiences of agency

Having provided us with her analytical model, Valencia then applies

it to the situation in La Oroya She takes us through a rich historical account of Peru’s efforts, starting with the smoke damages controversy

at the beginning of the last century, to build an economy in the Central Andes around mineral extraction Changes in social structures, landhold-ing practices, indigenous and class identities, economic arrangements, and legal and regulatory frameworks are explored She traces the ideological shifts that unfolded during the century with respect to how the role of the Peruvian state in relation to economic development, and to domestic and foreign investment, is conceived and should be (and was) acted upon The part played by international and US fi nancial institutions and interests in setting the parameters for economic reform is highlighted, along with the turn to neoliberal privatization strategies toward the close of the century Generating, in this manner, a nuanced contextual understanding of the current confl ict in La Oroya is the crucial fi rst step demanded by Valencia’s analytical model In this part of her study, we are treated to a remarkably detailed and compelling example of what this entails

The second crucial component is listening to the voices—the many and often opposing voices—involved in the debates within the commu-nity over La Oroya’s future Valencia’s doctoral fi eldwork, on which this volume draws, took her to La Oroya where she interviewed unionized workers, members of their families, activist advocates for environmental protection and public health measures, as well as residents who refrained from direct engagement with either side of the “jobs versus health and the environment” debate The community voices provide illuminating insights into the dilemmas navigated on a daily basis by La Oroya residents and into the deep divisions that characterize the community Valencia’s analytical model assists us in placing these confl icted and often passion-ate interventions in a historical narrative that makes sense of the current, immobilizing standoff between various factions and viewpoints

There is much here for a wide and varied audience Those interested

in getting behind the headlines concerning the environmental, enous, and public health issues raised by resource development in the Andean region will fi nd an account invaluable for both its detail and its referencing of broader global and historical trends Human rights and environmental activists and lawyers, community advocates, scholars, and

indig-public policy analysts all can fi nd something of value in Valencia’s model for thinking through and moving beyond community confl icts over eco-nomic development

The highway blockade in the summer of 2015 concerning the La Oroya smelter was eventually dispersed As Valencia suggests, however, such con-frontations are simply surface indicators of much deeper and historically embedded struggles Justice remains an illusion for those caught in situa-tions that make them “choose” between alternatives that, because they are fundamental to wellbeing, should never be presented as such—between their livelihoods and their health, for example Valencia’s approach eschews the abstract binaries of rights talk that simply exacerbate the confl ict or erase it entirely by obscuring its social and structural dimensions In her model, the path toward justice emerges out of a process of paying close attention to community histories and experiences, to the large scale forces that shape and texture our existence, and to the many and diverse voices

of those whose lives and bodies bear the impacts of supposedly inevitable trade-offs The glimpses in this volume of heartbreaking suffering, human losses, and devastated landscapes are not easily forgotten Nonetheless, the signature contribution is to provide us with a sturdy foundation for hope and optimism

University of Victoria, Faculty of Law

Canada

This book was made possible thanks to the valuable contributions of many individuals and academic groups It is based on my doctoral dissertation granted by the University of Victoria-Canada (UVic), where I was extremely fortunate to be supervised by an interdisciplinary committee To Hester Lessard, my principal supervisor; no words can express my endless gratitude for her unconditional support and confi dence in this project I thank Cecilia Benoit and Laura Parisi, my co-supervisors, for encouraging

my curiosity, challenging my assumptions, and helping me explore the interdisciplinary route safely I am indebted to Anthony Bebbington, my external examiner, for the questions and comments at the oral examina-tion that ultimately sparked my interest in assessing this project beyond

“the local.”

Some sections of this book (most notably, parts of the introductory chapter and Chap 6) were published as “Human Rights Trade-offs Human Rights Trade-offs in a Context of ‘Systemic Lack of Freedom’:

The Case of the Smelter Town of La Oroya, Peru” in the Journal of Human Rights , I am thankful to the journal editors for authorizing the

use of this material

The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) made possible the implementation of this study by providing

me with two generous scholarships The Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships allowed me to work full time toward the completion of this project The CGS-Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement allowed me to conduct research activities at the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath, UK, under the supervision

of Séverine Deneuline I offer her my deepest gratitude for inspiring my work, for her continuous sharing of knowledge, and for the opportuni-ties provided to keep exploring the value of the human development approach for Latin America

During my doctoral studies at the Law and Society Programme at UVic, I benefi ted not only from the inspiration of living on this pristine island but also from the support and feedback of professors Judy Fudge, Jeremy Webber, Michael McGonigle, and James Tully I thank them for their precious time and exchange of information in the early stages of this project I thank my community of friends in Victoria, especially Ania Zbyszewska, Mike and Kate Large, Jean Phillip Sapin, Jing Qian, Supriyo Routh, Agnieszka Zajaczkowska, Johnny Mack, Lorinda Fraser, Nicole O’Byrne, and Kerry Sloan, for all their intellectual and emotional support during those years They remain part of the vivid memories of a life in an environmentally conscious location, which is ironically distant from the story I narrate in this book

After completing my doctoral studies, I left the La Oroya project dormant for a while to embark on new processes of professional and intellectual growth Every single event and opportunity during those years was substantial in making this project mature and fi nally ready for publication In particular, I would like to acknowledge the contributions

of the following institutions that helped me to strengthen my identity as

a socio-legal scholar The Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) at the University of Ottawa (UO) granted me the 2013 Gordon

F. Henderson Postdoctoral Fellowship, which allowed me to deepen my knowledge of the political economy of extractivism in Latin America and its positive and negative impacts on human rights During my stay at UO,

I had the opportunity to teach two courses that served as a laboratory to test some ideas of this book: “Human Rights: International Protection” (Faculty of Law) and “Mining, Development and Human Rights in Latin America” (School of International Development and Global Studies) I thank my students in both courses for our animated discussions and their overall interest in the course topics I thank the Director of the HRREC, John Packer, and Assistant Director, Viviana Fernandez, for the multiple opportunities to present my work in progress To my mentor and friend, Penelope Simons, I thank you for trusting me and for bringing me back the passion for what we do; Penelope has positively infl uenced my work more than she can imagine Lucie Lamarche and Sonya Nigam opened the fi rst signifi cant door to me in Canada, and I thank them for this

To my colleagues Salvador Herencia, Olabisi Delebayo, Jael Duarte, Joaquin Bardallo, Siobanh Airey, Piere-Giles Belanger, Alvaro Cordova, Roger Merino, Ana Estefania Carballo, and Johannes Waldmüller, many thanks for the exchange of ideas about Latin America, development, business, and international human rights law

I have to also express my gratitude to the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) at Harvard Law School, especially to director David Kennedy, for the opportunity of being part of a vibrant community of scholars from around the globe My research has signifi cantly benefi ted from an incredible exchange of ideas at the IGLP workshop in Doha, Qatar (2014) and more recently at the IGLP Regional workshop in Latin America hosted at Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia (2015), where I presented the conceptual framework of this book I am partic-ularly grateful to Helena Alviar, Cynthia Farid, Cyra Choudhury, Jose Miguel Barreto, and the rest of the participants at the writing workshop who provided invaluable comments and suggestions to improve the con-ceptual chapter

In Lima, the Interdisciplinary Group on Human Development at the Pontifi cal Catholic University of Peru (GRIDHAL-PUCP in Spanish) could not have given me a warmer intellectual welcome back home I am particularly thankful to Javier Iguiñez, Catalina Romero, Ismael Muñoz, Efrain Gonzales, Fidel Tubino, Marcial Blondet, Gonzalo Gadmio, Felipe Zegarra, Jean Marie Ansion, Patricia Ruiz Bravo, Gianfranco Casuso, Norma Correa, Silvana Vargas, and Jhonatan Clausen for inviting me to join the group and their thorough feedback on a presentation about the

La Oroya case early in 2015 I am doubly grateful to Jhonatan, who read more than one chapter of the book and enriched them through the “eye”

of an economist

There are many other colleagues and friends who deserve edgment for their support and prompt feedback on diverse chapters of this book, including Liisa North, Martin Scurrah, Lisa Laplante, Helena Degratsi, William Sacher, Teresa Torres, and Eduardo Dargent I’m indebted also to Cesar Bedoya, Juan Aste, Eliana Ames, Hugo Villa, Raul Chacon, Maria Jose Veramendi, Astrid Puentes, Serena Khader, Pablo Gilabert, Nicolas Perrone, Eric Palmer, Jerusa Ali, and Jimena Sierra for contributing to this project in diverse ways And Ricardo Valdiviezo, Carlos Santiestevan, Elizabeth McIntyre, and Aaryn Zhou provided invaluable research assistance at different stages of the project

My gratitude to Colette Stoeber for her magnifi cent assistance

in language editing and to Rosario Pacherres for helping me with transcriptions I am also deeply grateful to the participants in this study, especially to members of the community of La Oroya, for opening their hearts and sharing their valuable experiences, which provided the essence

of this book

To my family in Peru, thank you for your unconditional love and encouragement To Adita, Max, Beria y Bitia, thanks for being the village that is always there to help me conquer my dreams To my sister Beria, thanks for putting your art in the design of my graphics To my family in Canada (The Yeomans), thank you for reminding me that there is no dif-

fi culty in life that cannot be resolved by a good glass of wine Last but not least, to my boys, Christopher and Marcel, for their morning kisses, for their patience, and for absorbing me with their love without undermin-ing my individual identity Thank you for not letting me give up I am immensely grateful for this and more adventures to come Always together

1 Introduction: Human Rights Trade-offs in 

Times of Economic Growth: A Tale from Peru 1

2 The La Oroya Confl ict: The Intractable Confl ict

3 A Systemic Human Rights Model of Analysis:

4 Systemic Lack of Freedom in La Oroya:

The Socio-Historical Roots and the 

5 Experiencing Systemic Lack of Freedom:

6 Examining the Trade-offs Between Health and 

Work in La Oroya: The Long-Term Capability

7 Conclusion: La Oroya at the Crossroads 217

Appendix 1 233

Jungle

Mining Industry

Directorate

Development

Rights

ICMM International Council for Mining and Metals

and Intellectual Property

Mining Projects

La Oroya

Peru Mission

Note: Some abbreviations and acronyms have been left in Spanish and the nomenclature has been translated into English

xix

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

A Valencia, Human Rights Trade-Offs in Times of Economic Growth,

Latin American Political Economy, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48868-8_1

to report on the situation Academics started to pay attention to the La Oroya case as well A transnational human rights network developed and effectively contributed in denouncing the situation of environmental cri-sis and health deprivation in La Oroya, pressuring governmental authori-ties and the smelting company, US-based Doe Run Company, to reverse the predicament But this movement downplayed a contentious aspect of the La Oroya case: the confrontation in the local population between the protection of the human right to health in La Oroya and simultaneous

Introduction: Human Rights Trade-offs

in Times of Economic Growth: A Tale

from Peru

This introduction reproduces some arguments from my article: “Human Rights Trade-offs in a Context of ‘Systemic Lack of Freedom’: The Case of the Smelter

Town of La Oroya, Peru,” Journal of Human Rights 13:4 (2014), 456–479 I

am thankful to the journal editors for authorizing the use of this material

demands for employment stability 2 Despite their own systematic sure to dangerous toxic metals along with the entire population, smelter workers and their families claimed that the demands for environmental and health protection threatened their main source of employment and, hence, their right to work 3 From this broader perspective, the La Oroya case portrays not only a scenario of environment and health deprivation but also a seemingly intractable case of human rights trade-offs

How are we to understand people’s compliance to sacrifi ce health for work? How to make sense of the fact that while the grassroots in this

community organizes under the cry “ The health of a child is a treasure that

is worth more than gold , ” 4 another important segment of the population

contests, “ If contamination were as strong as people say , then the children would not be smart and committed to their studies ” 5 The La Oroya trade-offs predicament is deeply puzzling Indeed, on the one hand, human rights literature often characterizes these rights as indivisible, interrelated, and interdependent 6 This broadly means that there should be no hierar-chy among them and that they all deserve the same level of respect, pro-tection, and fulfi llment 7 Nevertheless, the reality of cases like La Oroya shows how far away we are from the practical attainment of such aspira-tions In La Oroya, community members were faced with the dilemma of choosing between two essential components of human well-being: health and work At the same time, those intrigued by the La Oroya case often framed the problem in a dichotomized way as one in which we have to deliberate: “What is more important in life: to have health or to secure a job?” This question, although mirroring the crude reality of La Oroya, is both dangerously simplistic and ethically deceptive It inevitably throws the responsibility of decision onto members of the community without considering how and why this community is confronted with such a dilemma in the fi rst place and without offering any alternative options of protection for both of these rights

This book aims to provide an explanatory account about the La Oroya trade-offs from a multidisciplinary perspective that advances a critical approach to human rights and international development In doing so, it examines the impacts of almost a century of mining and smelting activities

in the life of La Oroya’ residents The book arose from an initial intuition that one can hardly provide an accurate assessment of people’s percep-tion of environmental harm, and the value of health and job stability in polluted communities, without a thorough study of historical, politico- economic, and sociological processes as well as of how such processes

shape the micro, meso, and macro spheres of people’s live over time From

a broader view, this book also wants to enhance awareness of the extent

to which the “local” human rights trade-offs in La Oroya resemble, and are also deeply interconnected to, a “national” trade-off resulting from the promotion of natural resource extraction as a path to secure economic growth for the entire country at the expense of some groups The histori-cal background of the La Oroya case—linking the very origins of capital-ist development based on large-scale mining in Peru—demonstrates the wider economic forces that have structured and reinforced this system of trade-offs over time, forces that have scaled down and up from national to local interests We must not overlook the consequences of this reality on marginalized individuals and groups’ human rights or on the shaping of governments’ institutional aptitude in designing an economy 8

THE PUZZLE

The complexity inherent in the dilemma faced by this community speaks,

at fi rst glance, to what Martha Nussbaum describes as a tragic choice ing from a tragic question 9 This refers to a question for which all pos-sible solutions are morally unacceptable: there are simply no right answers

result-to such a question Tragic dilemmas leading result-to tragic questions are, as Nussbaum posits, “blots on a decent society … [and] we should do every-thing in our power to arrange things so that we are not confronted with such choices.” 10 In the case of La Oroya, struggling to choose between defending one’s “health” (and sacrifi cing access to work or employment stability) and defending one’s “work” (and sacrifi cing community health) drives the community to equally unfair solutions Our inquiry about the

La Oroya case should avoid reinforcing the tragedy of the situation by automatically assuming that the dilemma of trade-offs is inevitable or unavoidable The question is therefore, to what extent do existing meth-ods that assess human rights trade-offs or rights in confl ict assist us in fully understanding the complexities inherent in the La Oroya dilemma? The answer is, very little As most of these methods are grounded on the legal discipline, they are primarily designed as tools meant to resolve legal controversies rather than to unveil the historical, economic, politi-cal, and social causes behind a human rights trade-offs situation 11 Citing examples of rights in confl ict, such as the right to free speech versus indi-vidual privacy, authors have previously assumed that human rights trade-offs are inevitable and that reasonable solutions can be found simply by

counterweighing correlative duties, 12 or they have treated human rights in confl ict as a matter of normative inconsistencies In these latter cases, solu-tions depend upon how legal practitioners interpret the content of rights

or how judges rule on the necessity to prioritize the protection of one right over the other 13 Without wishing to undermine the rigor and rel-evance of such studies in certain contexts, the need for a solution to the La Oroya trade-offs predicament surpasses the realm of the legal discipline What is in fact at stake goes beyond the necessity for prescriptions based

on pure normative reasoning or de-contextual legal engineering Rather,

we need to understand the human rights trade-offs dilemma as tomatic of structural problems, located in a particular politico-economic context, with identifi able root causes

A context-based analysis on human rights and root causes, thus, should move our inquiry in a different direction 14 Rather than uncritically judg-ing community members for their choices to defend either “health” or

“work,” we should instead ask why smelter workers, their families, and other supporters have refrained from supporting mobilization efforts aimed at overcoming health deprivation as a whole in the community And, most importantly, why did these individuals accept to support what has been referred to as the smelter company’s environmental malpractices when their own children were at risk from smelter pollution?

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Pushing forward the type of inquiry proposed in this book upholds several conceptual and methodological implications A fi rst hypothesis is that to fully understand the complexities behind tragic choices leading to human rights trade-offs, we need to move beyond the perpetrator-victim-rem-edy model commonly used by activists and practitioners to analyze such situations (see Chap 3 ) According to this model, particularly dominant within the legal discipline, the production of human rights violations is the result of a concrete, visible act of harm perpetuated by an identifi able actor, the unjust outcome of which deserves immediate redress Under the lens of a perpetrator-victim-remedy model, or what is otherwise consid-ered to be a naming and shaming strategy, our analysis would stop once Doe Run and the Peruvian state accept joint responsibility for the public health crisis of La Oroya and legal actions are in place for immediate reme-diation Although actions and omissions of both actors are indisputably

related to the human rights trade-offs in this community, their roles only disclose one explanatory layer behind the La Oroya conundrum As it will

be elaborated in this book, we have yet to undertake an analysis of the causes of causes This inquiry would allow us to dig deeper and wider into the socio-historical roots and politico-economic dimensions that allowed the Doe Run Company to continually contribute to human rights abuses

in La Oroya and explain the alarming inaction by the Peruvian state to address such abuses A thorough analysis will lead us to better understand how the politics of extraction in Peru, infl uenced by the international dis-course of development, along with a history of smelting in La Oroya have shaped social structures, personal values, and perceptions of health and environmental pollution

In looking for a framework capable of unveiling the interconnections described in the La Oroya case, I came across the capability approach (CA)

of human development pioneered by Amartya Sen and further developed

by Martha Nussbaum 15 Unlike other approaches, the CA has effectively put into conversation the disciplines of economics, ethics, and human rights 16 This is particularly important given the disciplinary assumptions

of economists to uncritically treat trade-offs as part of the political cess, where inevitably some of us will gain and others will lose 17 This belief, as described by Jack Donelly, was inherent in the conventional wisdom of the 1960s and 1970s that placed human rights concerns sec-ond to economic growth when it came to priorities 18 —an assumption that is still palpable in much of today’s’ international economic politics

pro-As I will discuss further in Chaps 4 and 6 , the CA challenges such an assumption by arguing that economic growth should not be promoted at the expense of human development; and it reminds political economists not to override ethical and human rights concerns in their analysis The

CA is also particularly wary about trade-offs among essential components

of human well-being The CA, particularly in Nussbaum’s version of the approach, acknowledges a plurality of well-being elements that all together represent the indispensable “well-being threshold” below which a life can-not be considered dignifi ed or fully human 19 Of course, as I will discuss in Chap 6 , this is not to neglect the fact that above the “well-being thresh-old” people may rank higher or lower in some components of well-being,

or even admit some temporary or minor trade-off without it necessarily resulting in a situation of absolute deprivation 20 I am neither oblivious to the reality that most national governments, due to insuffi cient resources,

have to prioritize some well-being-oriented policies over others 21 Yet, ther of these situations closely speaks to the intricacies behind the trade- offs problem in La Oroya In this case, structural and cognitive processes have merged historically, relationally, and systemically in impacting the very ability to choose among “Oroyinos,” making it impossible to admit that

nei-a lower rnei-anking of henei-alth over work (or vice versnei-a) will not hnei-arm or negnei-a-tively impact La Oroya residents’ ability to enjoy a functional and dignifi ed life These are the long-term capability impacts suffered by a community historically exposed to extractive-led development

From an additional but still interconnected angle, the CA is useful in reminding us to not hamper our analysis by accepting the short-term hori-zons of vulnerable peoples as the most realistic scenario Capability scholars often point to the phenomenon of “adaptive preferences” in referring to situations when people conform to or become content with their realities

of deprivation—and eventually accept trade-offs between essential aspects

of their human well-being—due to the lack of alternatives 22 The sion of human capabilities provides people with more alternative “livings”

expan-to choose among, so that they can avoid succumbing expan-to trade-off mas At a more general level, as noted by Severine Deneulin, the CA aims

dilem-to foster a critical normative language dilem-to evaluate economic and social policies and practices and to provide the means “[w]ith which to modify them within the horizon of human wellbeing, agency and just relations between people and the environment.” 23

For the reasons outlined above, I decided to integrate the CA with a critical-structural approach to human rights to design a model that I call a Human Rights Systemic Analytical Model (HRSAM) The model works to fulfi ll two analytical purposes One, it helps to assess the unjust structures that have historically impacted the realization of human rights and, more con-cretely, placed people in the diffi cult position of acquiescing to human rights trade-offs Second, it allows us to evaluate the extent to which the historical diminishment of human capabilities—in both the individual and collective spheres—relates to the fulfi llment (or lack thereof) of human rights In doing

so, the HRSAM and its application in the La Oroya case respond to a call for research to better articulate the relationship between human rights and capa-bilities, 24 and also to better understand the process and infl uential conditions under which people learn to choose among different ways of living 25

THE ARGUMENT

The underlying assumption of this book is that the economic, political, and social transformation of a former agricultural community into a smelter town has historically trapped inhabitants from La Oroya into a “context of systemic lack of freedom.” In this socio-historical and politico- economic shaped context, individual and community vulnerabilities increase and people’s ability to expand their choices decreases Therefore and inevi-tably, the growing risk of acquiescing to trade-offs among essential com-ponents of human well-being, as in the case of the La Oroya, follows Accordingly, the book poses two main questions: What are the compo-nents of the context of systemic lack of freedom in La Oroya? And how does such a context relate to the conundrum faced by La Oroya residents, placed in the position of having to weigh employment opportunities in the smelter against sacrifi cing the protection of their human right to health? Throughout this book, I will show how a context of systemic lack of freedom is sustained by an interconnection of converging historical, envi-ronmental, institutional, social, and personal factors that have trapped residents of La Oroya in a vicious cycle of disadvantage and capability deprivation, most notably in terms of the scope and quality of the capabili-ties to achieve health and work This context not only creates the funda-mental conditions for the La Oroya community members to forfeit their own rights, but it also diminishes people’s collective agency to defend their human rights to health and work as one single, rather than a con-

fl icted, ethical-political goal This study also demonstrates the existence

of a symbiotic relationship between the notion of human rights and bilities Indeed, as noted in the La Oroya case, the development of capa-bilities represents a necessary pre-condition to ensure the fulfi llment and protection of human rights from both the duty bearers and right holders

At a macro level analysis, the La Oroya case also makes readily ent the long-term effects of an economic dependency impinged by the extractive industry throughout Peru’s history, which manifests today in the diminishment of institutional freedoms and of the state’s capacity

appar-to re-imagine a diversifi ed model of economic development that breaks dependency ties with the industry Moreover, the HRSAM as applied in La Oroya discloses the multiple interconnected layers that scale up and down, from the global and the local and vice versa, shaping the belief systems, social practices, relations of power, and institutional arrangements that

make human rights violations a systemic problem and create the barriers

to transforming institutions such that they promote more promising texts for human development 26

BEYOND THE “LOCAL” TRADE-OFF

The story of La Oroya, albeit the most dramatic, is not the only case that exposes human rights violations and confl icted views about the benefi ts of the extractive industry in local economies In fact, the case unfolded in the midst of a climate of high levels of social unrest in Peru related to the most recent chapter of the country’s politics of extractive-led development Driven by neoliberal reforms, with less restrictions applied on foreign capi-tal and open markets, the last two decades have witnessed a rapid expansion

of the extractive industry in Peru 27 This industry has in fact become the principal motor of macroeconomic growth in the country, contributing to

a sustained 6.38 % of annual growth in the last decade 28 As in many other countries rich in natural resources, the rents and revenues of the extrac-tive industry are deemed vital for the implementation of social policies intended to redistribute wealth nationwide and consequently reduce pov-erty and facilitate equality and social inclusion 29 Paradoxically, extraction- based development has also contributed to exacerbating the vulnerability

of individuals and communities located in the vicinities of extractive ects that affect, among other things, their traditional livelihoods, environ-ment, and culture 30 This situation is revealed by an increasing number of socio-environmental confl icts 31 These confl icts often illustrate a tension between communities, private companies, and the state over the control, use, or access to land, natural resources, and the protection of the envi-ronment 32 From a different angle, such confl icts have also stimulated the emergence of collective and political spaces through which populations resist the concrete and potential negative impacts of indiscriminate extrac-tion over their individual and collective well-being 33

The emergence of such a paradoxical scenario has sparked a renewed scholarly interest in the political economy of natural resource extraction and development in Latin America in general, and Peru in particular, which had remained dormant since the prominence of dependency theo-rists and their critics in the 1970s and 1980s 34 Underlying this new body

of literature, characterized by a rich interdisciplinary dialogue and a ety methodological approaches, is the contention that the politics of eco-nomic development in Latin America cannot be understood—and even

vari-less so theorized about—if it is detached from the extractive industry and its implications in national institutional developments, new territorial and subsoil dynamics, and overall human well-being 35

For illustrative purposes, and admitting the risk of oversimplifi cation,

I have synthetized this wide range of studies and their encompassing themes as part of a continuum line composed of three groups On one side of the spectrum, we fi nd analytical proposals for “better governance and institutional arrangements,” which, although critical to the current model of extractive-led development, do not necessarily advance propos-als to transform it I call these analytical-evaluative approaches On the other side of the spectrum, we situate proposals that are more incisive

in terms of “questioning the current model of development” due to the reinforcement of economic dependency, the use of discursive strategies to mislead populations, and the seeming cultural blindness to the existence

of other ways of living outside the extractive sector I call these analytical- transformative approaches Hybrid approaches are located between these two modes

In the fi rst group, there is a large body of literature devoted to standing the nature, causes, citizens’ responses, mechanisms of negoti-ation and prevention, and even costs of mining confl icts (also referred

under-to as socio-environmental confl icts) 36 Perceptions of land sion, environmental- health threats, cultural impacts, fragile company- community relationships, capacity to organize collectively, institutional weakness to effectively design and regulate environmental rules, as well

disposses-as the lack of equitable redistribution of the benefi ts of mineral rents and royalties are all pointed out as related factors to the emergence and inten-sifi cation of confl icts A variety of prescriptions, on the other hand, include strengthening environmental regulation, 37 effectively implementing prior consultation mechanisms, 38 fostering greater dialogue among stake-holders, 39 enhancing mechanisms to monitor corporate ethical behavior (including corporate social responsibility [CSR] 40 and the human rights and business framework), 41 and proposals to open responsibility of home states in the protection of human rights abuses committed by corporations

on host countries 42 The latter is particularly important given that by 2008 the extractive industry recorded the highest allegations of human rights violations of any industry 43 Yet, the fact of the matter is that, as rightly pointed out by Anthony Bebbington and Jeffrey Bury, confl icts are deeply complex and heterogeneous, and “[t]he mobilizations that occur around extraction are many, varied, and ambiguous.” 44 Indeed, as in the case of

La Oroya, mobilization does not necessarily express a drastic opposition

to or, alternatively, acceptance of the industry; sometimes, both angles are present and the reasons behind them are multiple

In between analytical-evaluative and analytical-transformative aches, I situate studies that display a revival interest in testing the ines-capability of the “resource curse” thesis: namely, in the context of Peru Drawing on evidence of mineral-rich countries in the period of the 1960s and 1990s, 45 the “resource curse” approach—largely nourished by the work of Richard Auty and subsequently by Jeffrey Sachs and colleagues—maintains that mineral-rich countries tend to have higher levels of income inequality and poor development outcomes than non-mineral-rich countries 46 Most contemporary literature in the backdrop of the recent boom of mining and metals, however, endorses a more nuanced position that rejects from the outset the assumption of a curse as a deterministic pre-diction or inevitable destiny 47 Yet, an in-depth analysis of Peru’s economic history, fragile institutions, and policy networks in light of the high levels

appro-of socio-environmental confl icts not only makes palpable the presence appro-of a curse 48 but also shows that this curse has become more entrenched at the regional and local levels 49

Toward the other end of the spectrum, the literature proposes to look beyond issues of governance to also assess the legacy of colonialism in understanding socio-environmental confl icts 50 It tends to be more sharply critical of the discourses of “sustainable mining” and the “new extractiv-ism,” which have gained important currency in today’s Latin America The fi rst, promoted by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), 51 has been described as a discursive oxymoron designed to “con-ceal harm and neutralize critique” toward the industry 52 The new extrac-tivism, for its part, represents a discourse by which the extractive industry and governments alike seek to signal new times in which a more respon-sible industry operates with high technological standards and principles

of CSR, and welcomes the regulatory presence of the state to provide the necessary revenues to fi nance social policies aimed at poverty reduction and the amelioration of inequalities and social exclusion The new extrac-tivism separates itself from the highly polluted industry that operated in Latin America during the past century in an enclave modality More often than not, such a discourse tends to be assumed as a catalyst to the idea

of “inclusive development” or “inclusive growth.” Critical literature on the new extractivism has taken a skeptical view of the promise of inclu-sive growth given the disproportionate distribution of the externalities of

natural resource extraction, which mainly impact aboriginal and peasant communities 53 For others, new extractivism is nothing more than a mech-anism of “imperialist plunder” facilitated by governments of home coun-tries of extractive companies to expedite the expansion of foreign global capital to the global South 54 In line with these studies, there is a body

of literature framed as “post-extractivism” that offers a series of steps to progressively move toward a different vision of society less dependent on the extractive industry 55 The goal is to surpass the current stage described

as “predatory extraction” to arrive at a stage of “sensible extraction” in a framework of a more diversifi ed and culturally responsive economy 56 One recurrent theme is the utilitarian tendency of Latin American regimes to promote the extractive sector in order to translate the benefi ts

to the greater number of citizens, even when in the interim this may entail adverse impacts to people’s culture, livelihoods, health, and environments However, the reviewed literature has been overwhelmingly silent on the ethical consequences of such trade-offs And although some studies have indeed taken notice of the existence of trade-offs and pointed out the governmental “[p]redisposition to adopt a hostile attitude towards those who question such trade-offs,” 57 it is not clear whether the assumption

is to reject or accept such trade-offs as something inevitable As Joseph Stiglitz reminds us, “[W]hen outside advisers try to sell a particular policy

as the right policy—implying that there are no trade-offs, no risks, no

alternatives—governments and the citizens should rightly be suspect.” 58

By means of discussing the case of La Oroya and its linkages with the ical economy of natural resource extraction in Peru, historically shaped by

polit-a mix of endogenous polit-and exogenous fpolit-actors, this book polit-aims to contribute

to open debates in that direction

THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF THE STUDY

The book was originally conceived to intervene in the critical thinking about human rights and the politics of international development with

a focus on Latin America Admittedly, my interest in the case arose cifi cally from a disciplinary dissatisfaction of dominant legal methods to assess human rights, most concretely, human rights in confl ict in the large context of extractive-led economic development As the exploration of the case advanced, including fi eldwork in 2010 and a follow-up visit in

spe-2015, the multidisciplinary character of this study started to take shape and mature My reasoning about the La Oroya conundrum borrows from

disciplines such as sociology, law, political science, anthropology, and history This raises the challenge of identifying the target audience of this book A legal orthodox scholar may fi nd the book “too social” while the political scientist and economist may feel wary of engaging in the reading

of a work that involves the lofty—often vague—language of human rights

I am conscious that I may not fully satisfy the disciplinary expectations of scholars from the disciplines I borrow from Yet, the primary end of this book is not to advance statements of truth but to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue—with all the challenges this might entail—as to better refl ect on the social, economic, and political transformations fostered by the current expansion of mineral extraction and the social mobilization that responds

to it in the Latin American region As such, the book is intended to grab the attention of both the skeptical and the curious mind alike in order

to further the conversation at the intersection of development studies, human rights, and the politics of extractivism (or “new extractivism”)

of this community conundrum Thus, to really understand the origins of the “intractable” nature of this case, one needs to go deeper and wider in advancing a contextual and historical analysis aimed to identify the root causes of the trade-off dilemma

Chapter 3 develops a model to explore and assess historical processes and politico-economic dimensions of human rights abuses that I refer to

as a human rights systemic analytical model (HRSAM) Conceptually, the model draws on structural approaches to human rights; and for strategic, contextual, and pragmatic reasons, it bridges human rights and the idea

of human capabilities as its unit of analysis The HRSAM is designed to provide guidance in investigating the contours and components of a con-text of systemic lack of freedom to understand how this context affects

both the development of human capabilities and the realization of human rights leading to unfortunate trade-offs Methodologically, the model rests

on four principles that seek to foster self-refl exivity, historical and political awareness, people’s voices and narratives, and engagement in the scrutiny

of individuals and their social embeddedness

Chapter 4 begins the implementation of the HRSAM in La Oroya by means of fostering historical and political awareness about the case It dis-cusses how La Oroya was transformed from a group of villages with a rela-tive self-sustained agricultural economy into a smelter town as a result of the establishment of large-scale mining capitalist development in Central Andes, Peru The chapter identifi es the most dramatic consequences of this transformation in the life of community members, most notably in terms of a long-lasting history of pollution, the rise and fall of a proletarian class, and the beginning of a cycle of economic dependency While these facts point to transformations at the micro and meso level, the historical appraisal of La Oroya also sheds light on the strategic importance the min-ing industry has gained in Peru at the macro politico- economic level As noted in the La Oroya case, a state-servile attitude toward foreign invest-ment, which has become more prominent in the recent context of neo-liberalism, largely determines the state’s responses to socio-environmental confl icts in this sector

Chapter 5 continues the implementation of the HRSAM by offering a complementary account explaining how structures of lack of freedom are experienced in the everyday lives of residents of La Oroya This chapter reports on the fi ndings from fi eldwork that included in-depth interviews with community members from La Oroya conducted in 2010 (October–December) While residents’ testimonies reaffi rm and deepen insights dis-cussed in the previous chapter, they also provide additional information related to people’s identity and to socio-economic cleavages—details that are crucial to fully understanding how La Oroya’s social embeddedness is constituted

Chapter 6 provides an analysis of the trade-offs between “health” and

“work,” and in doing this responds to the main questions of this study The chapter identifi es and presents the components of the context of

systemic lack of freedom in La Oroya as a constellation of factors: ronmental (e.g perceptions of environmental harm, historical pollution); institutional (e.g historical economic dependency on the extractive sec-

envi-tor, the state’s leniency in enforcing the smelter company’s tal obligations, the institutional fragility of the human rights discourse);

social (e.g migration, loss of collective identity, socio-economic and

gender inequalities, uncertainty about pollution, limited access to mation, assignment of responsibility for pollution-based illness to indi-

infor-viduals, stigma against the poor); and personal (e.g forming of individual

values and needs, characteristics of individual identity) Subsequent to the description of such a context, the chapter explains how living under sys-temic lack of freedom resulting in capability deprivation in La Oroya not only has made people more susceptible to accepting human rights trade- offs between health and work but has also weakened the community’s collective agency to resist such trade-offs in a unifi ed way

In the conclusion of the book, I summarize its arguments and discuss the potentials and limitations of using the HRSAM. While recommenda-tions for addressing the problem of lack of freedom in La Oroya are listed

in terms of short-term measures, the chapter stresses the fact that teracting lack of freedom requires not only broader structural changes but also in-depth refl ection on the challenge of fi nding consensus about good living in the context of hybrid societies in which economies are strongly tied to the extractive sector

NOTES

www.blacksmithinstitute.org/annual-reports.html [11 November 2014]

2 A few exceptions, which make effectively visible the “rights in confl ict” in

La Oroya, include Corey Laplante, La Oroya : Human Rights in Confl ict

[unpublished, cited with author’s permission]; Martin Scurrah, et  al.,

“Case Study: Jobs and Health in Peru,” in Globalizing Social Justice : The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Bringing about Change , ed

Jeff Atkinson and Martin Scurrah (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Barbara Fraser, “Peruvian Mining Town Must Balance Health and

Economics,” The Lancet 367:9514 (2006), 889–890

3 Although the defense of the right to work in La Oroya best illustrates demands of employment stability to secure wages for subsistence, this book opts to label the confl ict in La Oroya as one of health versus work rather than employment, given that in the human rights literature the con- vention is to talk about the “right to work.” That includes, but is not exclusively limited to, safeguards for employment opportunities See Guy

Mundlack, “The Right to Work: The Value of Work,” in Exploring Social Rights : Between Theory and Practice , ed Daphne Barak-Erez and Aeyal

Gross (Oxford: Hart, 2007)

4 Interview with MC 3 (27 October 2010), La Oroya, Peru

5 Interview with MC 18 (14 November 2010), La Oroya, Peru

6 Elizabeth Koch, Human Rights as Indivisible Rights : The Protection of Economic Demands under the European Convention on Human Rights (Boston:

Rights : A History (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010)

7 See the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action (1993) and the Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1997)

8 In this manner, the case study of La Oroya takes inspiration in the notion

of an “extended case study” as proposed by Michael Burawoy See: Michael

Burawoy, “The Extended Case Method,” Sociological Theory 16:1 (1998)

9 Martha Nussbaum, “The Cost of Tragedy: Some Moral Limits of

Cost-benefi t Analysis,” The Journal of Legal Studies 29:S2 (2000), 1005–1036

10 Ibid., 1025

11 Stavros Tsakyrakis, “Proportionality: An Assault on Human Rights?”

International Journal of Constitutional Law 7:3 (2009), 468–493; Iris Van

Domselaar, “Tragic Choices as a Legal Concept,” A.R.S.P (2009),

id=1792725 [26 February 2014]

12 Jeremy Waldrom, “Rights in Confl ict,” Ethics 99:3 (1989), 503–519

13 Robert Alexy, “On Balancing and Subsumption: A Structural Comparison,”

Dilemmas : Confl icts of Fundamental Legal Rights in Europe and the USA

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

14 Susan Marks, “Human Rights and Root Causes,” The Modern Law Review

74:1 (2011), 57–78

Nussbaum, Women and Human Development : The Capabilities Approach

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 84–85

16 Polly Vizard, “The Contribution of Professor Amartya Sen in the Field of

eprints.lse.ac.uk/6273/1/The_Contributions_of_Professor_Amartya_ Sen_in_the_Field_of_Human_Rights.pdf

17 See, Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Whiter Reform? Towards a New Agenda for Latin

America,” CEPAL Review 80 (August 2003)

18 Jack Donelly, “Human Rights and Development: Complementary or

Competing Concerns?” World Politics 36 (1984), 255–283

19 I am referring here to Nussbaum’s most recent account of ten central human capabilities that must be secured for all people on earth, which includes life, bodily health, bodily integrity, sense, imagination and thought, emotions, practical reason, affi liation, other species, play, and

Capabilities : The Human Development Approach (Cambridge, MA: The

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011) See also, Martha Nussbaum, “Human Functioning and Social Justice: In Defense of

Aristotelian Essentialism,” Political Theory 20:2 (May 1992), 202–246

20 This can happen, for instance, when a person decides to study for a second career at night while continuing to work during the day The expectation is that in the long term the economic benefi ts will be greater than the costs While in the short term, such a decision may entail less quality time with family and friends, less time for leisure activities, and the risk of increased stress levels, the person knows that this is only a temporary sacrifi ce

21 David Crocker, “Deliberative Participation in Local Development,”

Journal of Human Development 8:3 (2007), 431–455

Values and Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984); Serene Khader, Adaptive Preferences and Women ’ s Empowerment

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)

23 Severine Deneulin, Wellbeing , Justice and Development Ethics (New York:

Routledge, 2014), 6

24 Poly Vizard, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, and Diane Elson, “Introduction: The

Capability Approach and Human Rights,” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 12:1 (2011), 1–22; Poly Vizard, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, and

Interdisciplinary Dialogue (London: Routledge, 2012)

Philosophy and Education 28 (2009): 449–460; Ortrud Lebmann,

“Freedom of Choice and Poverty Alleviation,” Review of Social Economy

69:4 (2011), 439–463

26 I am referring here to the case not only of formal governmental institutions but also informal institutions in the sense of cultural norms, belief, social practices, and so on See Ha-Joon Chang, “La Relación entre las Instituciones y el Desarrollo Económico” Problemas Teoricos Claves,”

Revista de Economía Institucional 8:14 (2006)

27 By extractive industry, this book refers to activities that involve the tion, exploitation, and/or refi nement of minerals, oil, and natural gas

28 See, “Peru liderará crecimiento economico en Sudamerica entre 2011 y

p e r u 2 1 p e / e c o n o m i a / p e r u l i d e r a r a c r e c i m i e n t o e c o n o m i c o sudamerica-entre-2011-y-2013-2110761

29 Andrew Rosser, “Natural Resource Wealth, Development and Social

Resources for Social Development , ed., Katja Hujo and Shea Mcclanahan

(New York: UNRISD & Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Katja Hujo (ed.),

Challenges (New York: UNRISD & Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) Gomez

Sabani, Juan Carlos, Juan Pablo Jimenez, and Dalmiro Moran El Impacto Fiscal de la Explotacion de los Recursos Naturales no Renovables en los Paises

de America Latina y el Caribe (Santiago: CEPAL, 2015)

30 Martin Scurrah, “Incidencia política y confl icto: algunos temas comunes a

los casos extractivos,” in Defendiendo Derechos y Promoviendo Cambios , ed

Martin Scurrah (Lima: Oxfam, Instituto del Bien Común and IEP, 2009); Matt Finner and Martí Martínez-Orta, “A  Second, Hydrocarbon Boom Threatened the Peruvian Amazon: Trends, Projections, and Policy

Implications,” 014012 Environmental Research Letters 5 (2010), 1–10

31 Since 2004, the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Branch for the Prevention of Social Confl ict and Governance has published reports showing the inextri- cable link between mining activities and the occurrence of confl icts Their

33 Marti Orta-Martinez and Matt Finer, “Oil Frontiers and Indigenous

Economics 70 (2010): 207–218; Anthony Bebbington, “Extractive

Development and the Extractive Industry : Evidence from South America , ed

Anthony Bebbington (New York: Routledge, 2012)

theory to understanding the dynamics of development in the region

35 Bebbington, “Extractive Industries, Socio-environmental Confl icts”;

Anthony Bebbington and Jeffrey Bury, eds., Subterranean Struggles : New Dynamics of Mining , Oil & Gas in Latin America (Texas: University of

Texas Press, 2013)

36 José De Echave, et al., Minería y Confl icto Social (Lima: Instituto de Estudios

Negociaciones y Lecciones para el Desarrollo desde la Mineria en Ancash , Peru

(Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2009); Ivan Ormachea, Javier

Caravedo, Gustavo Moreno, and Cesar Bedoya, Mineria , Confl icto Social y Dialogo (Lima: Prodialogo, UIO, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya,

2014); Rachel Davis and Daniel Franks, “Cost of Company-Community Confl ict in the Extractive Sector,” Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative Report No 66 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Kennedy School, 2014); Teresa Velasquez, “The Science of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Contamination and Confl ict in a Mining Project in the Southern Ecuadorian

Andes,” Resource Policy 37 (2012), 233–240; Scurrah, “Incidencia política y

confl icto”; Bebbington, “Extractive Industries, Socio-environmental Confl icts.”

Temas Socio-Ambientales en el Peru : Una Aproximacion desde las Ciencias Sociales (Lima: CISEPA-PUCP, 2014)

Peoples and the Right to Prior Consultation in Social Minefi elds,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18:1 (2010), 263–305; Elizabeth Salmon,

“The Struggle for Laws of Free, Prior, and Informed Consultation in Peru: Lessons and Ambiguities in the Recognition of Indigenous Peoples,”

Pacifi c Rim Law & Policy Journal 22:2 (2013), 353–390

39 Ormachea et al., Mineria , Confl icto Social y Dialogo

40 Deanna Kemp, John R Owen, and Shashi van de Graaf, “Corporate Social

Responsibility, Mining and “Audit Culture,” Journal of Cleaner Production

24 (2012), 1–10

41 John Ruggie, Just Business : Multinational Corporations and Human Rights

(New York: Norton & Company, 2013); The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect,

o h c h r o r g / D o c u m e n t s / P u b l i c a t i o n s / G u i d i n g P r i n c i p l e s BusinessHR_EN.pdf

42 Gwynne Skinner et  al., The Third Pillar : Access to Judicial Remedies for Human Rights Violations by Transnational Business (London: ICAR,

CORE and ECCJ, 2013); DPLF-Due Process of Law Foundation,

Canada ’ s Responsibility (Washington: DPL, ANAA, AMAS, MUQUI,

CEHPRODEC, 2014)

43 Michael Wright, “Corporations and Human Rights: A Survey of the Scope and Patterns of Alleged Corporate-Related Human Rights Abuse,” Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative Working Paper No 44 (Cambridge, MA: John

F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2008)

44 Bebbington and Bury, Subterranean Struggles , 7

45 Mineral economies are often defi ned as countries that generate at least 7 %

of their GDP and 40 % of their exports earnings from the mineral sector

46 Richard Auty, Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies : The Resource Course Thesis (New York: Routledge, 1983); Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz, and Macartan Humphreys (eds.), Escaping the Resource Curse (New York:

Columbia University Press, 2007)

47 Rosemary Thorp, Stefania Battistelli, Yvan Guichaoua, Jose Carlos

Orihuela, and Maritza Paredes, The Developmental Challenges of Mining and Oil : Lessons from Africa and Latin America (New York: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2012); Jose Carlos Orihuela, “How Do “Mineral-States” Learn? Path-dependence, Networks, and Policy Change in the Development

of Economic Institutions,” World Development 43 (2013), 138–148; Katja

Hujo, “Introduction and Overview: Blessing or Curse? Financing Social

Policies in Mineral-rich Countries,” in Hujo (ed.), Mineral Rents

“Mineral-States.”

49 Javier Arellano-Yanguas, “Aggravating the Resource Curse:

Decentralisation, Mining and Confl ict in Peru,” Journal of Development Studies 47:4 (2011); Javier Arellano-Yanguas, ¿ Minería sin fronteras ? Confl icto y Desarrollo en regiones mineras del Peru (Lima: IEP and Fondo

Editorial PUCP, 2011)

50 Roger Merino, “The Politics of Extractive Governance: Indigenous

Peoples and Socio-Environmental Confl icts,” The Extractive Industry and Society 2 (2015), 85–92

Contribution to Sustainable Development : The Series , available at: http:// www.icmm.com/minings-contribution For a positive stand on the poten- tial contribution of the mining industry to society through sustainable mining practices, see: Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) Catalyst,

Development Partner Framework , available at: http://www.kinglobal.org/ catalyst.php

52 Stuart Kirsch, Sustainable Mining, Dialect Anthropology 34 (2010), 87–93;

Anthropology 34 (2010), 45–48

53 Jean Grugel and Jewellord Nem Singh, “Citizenship, Democratisation and

Resource Politics,” in Resource Governance and Developmental States in the Global South : Critical International Political Economy Perspectives , ed.,

France Bourgouin and Jewellord Nem Singh (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Neoliberal Development Model or Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century ?

(New York: Zed Books, 2014); Henry Veltmeyer, “The Political Economy

of Natural Resource Extraction: A New Model or Extractive Imperialism?”

Canadian Journal of Development Studies 39:1 (2013), 79

55 These include environmental measures (e.g strengthening environmental law and regulation); the reconfi guration of trade in natural resources (e.g including environmental externalities and soil remediation in the cost of raw materials); autonomous regionalism (e.g coordinated measures such

as transfer pricing and socio- environmental standards); moving from verse subsidies” to “legitimate subsidies” (i.e from tax exemptions, trans- port infrastructure, and supply of free water for mining to subsidies to support organic farming); and changing patterns of consumption (e.g avoiding waste of materials or energy, combating opulent consumption, etc.) In Eduardo Gudynas, “Transitions to Post-Extractivism: Directions,

“per-Options, Areas of Action,” in Beyond Development : Alternative Visions from Latin America , ed M.  Lang and D.  Mokrani, 165–188 (Quito:

Fundacion Rosa Luxemburgo, 2013)

56 Ibid

57 Bebbington, “Extractive Industries, Socio-environmental Confl icts,” 221

A few other attempts have in fact rejected the idea of “trade- offs.” Instead, they present the problem as one of a “paradox,” which portrays on one hand a greater concern on the part of mining companies on social and environmental impacts; and on the other hand, and despite this improved performance of companies, a rise of social confl icts See Anthony Hodge,

“Mining Company Performance and Community Confl ict: Moving

beyond a Seeming Paradox,” Journal of Cleaner Production 84 (2014):

27–33

58 Stiglitz, “Whiter Reform?,” 27

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

A Valencia, Human Rights Trade-Offs in Times of Economic Growth,

Latin American Political Economy, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48868-8_2

In the heart of Peru, in the midst of the Central Andes at 3740 metres above sea level, lies La Oroya, a smelter community—the focus of this book The city of La Oroya 1 belongs to the Province of Yauli, Department

of Junín It is situated 185 kilometres from the city of Lima, the Peruvian capital The La Oroya territory forms part of the Mantaro Valley, an area historically known for its richness in agricultural products and abundant mineral resources (Fig 2.1 )

Toward La Oroya, a typical high-altitude scene opens up of dry, isolated sections of grassland spreading over the mountains near Ticlio, alerting travelers that their destination is near 2 But something else also distin-guishes the La Oroya landscape As one approaches the neighborhood

of La Oroya Antigua, where the metallurgic refi nery is located, a lack of urban planning and the impoverished living conditions become visible This is exacerbated by obvious environmental shortfalls, as a thick cap of grey dust (metal tailings) covers the mountains The absence of vegetation and the lifeless river make readily apparent the legacy of almost a century

of smelter activities 3

On a regular day in La Oroya, life seems to happen at a normal pace for the 18,606 inhabitants 4 Children play on the streets after school while a group of retired smelter workers, talking together on a corner, enjoy the afternoon Commercial activities are also common Vendors sell vegetables and meat products from Tarma and Huancayo, the closest cities to La

The La Oroya Confl ict: The Intractable Confl ict Between Health and Work