[Informal translation of summary by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

The local population of the Espinar district coexists with modern mining operations approximately since 40 years ago.  This situation has had –and still has- a contaminating impact that has not been adequately measured- with repercussions on the quality of the environment and its inhabitants’ health…Despite social protests in Espinar, like the one occurred in 2012, the State response has been minimum.  So far, it has not accepted its responsibility in the protection of people’s health…Taking into account that contamination is a problem of public environmental health of Espinar…a first step [we have given] is to make the impacts on the right to health of the Espinar population evident, since it is caused by contamination with heavy metals, and to show those sources of exposure indicative of it, by using a methodology consisting of a systematic review of primary and secondary sources of information.  Based on this systematization, we have created and recovered evidences; at the same time, we have considered a comparative policy and, finally, drafted some proposals of policy guidelines…An example of this is how the Peruvian Govt. defends the natural contamination thesis over high mineralization of Espinar and does not make any efforts to seek the primary sources of it and, what is worse, to protect its population.  This situation allows that, a giant of extractive industry and row materials trader, like Glencore, be included under this rationale, and that the company feels protected under the uncertain shadow that the Govt. itself creates, therefore ignoring the protective and preventive principles that should prevail [in this context]…