Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/128110 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing No. 15
Publisher: 
University of Bath, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Bath
Abstract: 
This paper examines the interconnecting causes that have placed residents of the community of La Oroya, in Peru's central Andes, in the dilemma of having to sacrifice their human right to health in order to preserve job opportunities at the town's smelter. Using the lens of a 'capability-oriented model of human rights', the paper shows how a constellation of environmental, social, institutional and personal factors have resulted in structuring a context of systemic unfreedom in La Oroya. This is a context in which human rights abuses reproduce systemically, affecting the overall wellbeing of individuals and communities, and in turn, diminishing their ability to transform their reality of unfreedom. The paper argues that to understand fully why some residents of the La Oroya community acquiesced in forfeiting their own rights, particular attention has to be paid to the pernicious manner in which living under unfreedom has historically trapped individuals of this community in a vicious cycle of disadvantage.
Subjects: 
human rights
extractive industry
capability approach
structural injustice
environment
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.31 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.