Environmental Defender Law Center (EDLC), a longtime TCI partner, works to protect the human rights of people in the Global South who are fighting to defend the environment in their communities by finding pro bono lawyers to work on their behalf, providing resources, and giving grants. EDLC specializes in cases of international significance where innovative legal strategies can be developed and later replicated to help defenders in other cases.
After three years of hard-fought litigation, EDLC and its local partners secured a historic victory on behalf of the residents of Huancavelica, Peru, a city contaminated with mercury, arsenic, and lead on account of silver refining operations during the colonial period. In December 2023, the Superior Court of Peru ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the Peruvian government to remediate contaminated areas in Huancavelica and neighboring Sacsamarca. Through this ruling, the Court required that numerous government agencies take immediate and long-term actions to address the problem: first, that the national government and environmental agency enact a decree declaring the contamination an environmental emergency; second, that the environmental agency declare the area a contaminated site and create a plan for its remediation; third, that the case be included in the country’s mercury decontamination plan pursuant to the Minamata Convention; and finally, that the Peruvian government be responsible for the remediation, given the risk the contaminants present to public health and the impossibility of attributing liability to any other entity.
EDLC and its local partners are now working to ensure the government’s compliance with the ruling.