Benito Oliveira Pereira et al v. Paraguay

CCPR/C/132/D/2552/2015
September 30, 2014
Final judgment
International, Geneva

Local authorities
Benito Oliveira Pereira, Lucio Guillermo Sosa Benega on behalf of all the 201 Ava Guarani people of the Campo Agua’e indigenous community
State
No description

International
Glyphosate, Paraquat, Chlorpyrifos, Endosulfan, Herbicide,
Investigate all the facts, guaranteeing access to all stages and instances of the investigation, and punish all those responsible; adopt all necessary measures to ensure that similar events do not happen in the future; guarantee that the members of the community receive full and adequate reparation, including reimbursement of legal costs; agri-environmental recovery plans, access to drinking water...
Human Rights Commission of the United Nations of Geneva, International

October 12, 2021
Positive
The UN Human Rights Committee found that Paraguay’s failure to prevent and control the toxic contamination of traditional lands, due to the intensive use of pesticides by nearby commercial farms, violates the indigenous community’s rights and sense of “home”.

The indigenous community of Campo Agua'ẽ has suffered severe consequences from the fumigation of toxic pesticides by neighboring large commercial operations. After lengthy and unsatisfactory administrative and judicial process in Paraguay, the community brought their case to the Human Rights Committee. It further found that Paraguay did not adequately monitor the fumigation and failed to prevent contamination. It recommended that Paraguay complete the criminal and administrative proceedings against all the parties responsible, make full reparation to the victims, take all necessary measures, in close consultation with the community, to repair the environmental damage, and take steps to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future. It gives Paraguay 180 days to inform it of the measures adopted to implement the judgment.