“Victims of business-influenced human rights violations face obstacles to achieving justice”

…In a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, civil society organizations[1]demonstrated, through emblematic cases in South America, that this is a problem that happens throughout the region…One of these cases occurred in Brazil on November 5, 2015, when a dam of mining waste owned by Samarco [part of BHP Billiton and Vale] burst in the Río Doce basin. The rupture caused the worst socio-environmental disaster in the country’s history…In the hearing, the organizations also referred to the case of Southern Peaks Mining, financed by the British-owned Barclays Bank, in which they are accused of breaching agreements with Mala communities in Peru. Here the victims found persecution and illegal detention in their search for justice…