Yanomami v. Brazil

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that Brazil's construction of a highway and exploitation of the natural resources on the ancestral lands of Yanomamis threatened their life and caused environmental harm. In its decision, the Commission demonstrated that a State can be held accountable for violating human rights if it fails to take measures to prevent others from degrading the environment.

Background
A petition was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against the State of Brazil and in favor of the Yanomami indigenous peoples. The case was based on the construction of a road and mining licenses granted in indigenous land, which had led to a massive presence of foreigners in the said territory and had serious effects on the community's well-being, including the alteration of their traditional organization, emergence of female prostitution, epidemics and diseases, forced displacement to lands unsuitable to their ways of life, and death of hundreds of Yanomamis. The IACHR found the State was responsible for failing to take timely and effective measures to protect the Yanomamis' human rights. The IACHR concluded such failure had led to alterations in the community's well-being and violations to the right to life, liberty, security, residence and movement, and to the preservation of health and well-being. The IACHR considered that current international law acknowledges the right of indigenous groups to special protection for the use of their language, their religion and, in general, all elements essential to the preservation of their cultural identity. The IACHR recommended the State, in line with domestic legislation, to proceed to demarcate the Yanomami Park, to continue adopting preventive and remedial sanitary measures aimed at protecting the life and health of the Yanomami, and to ensure education, health protection and social integration programs aimed at the Yanomami were carried out in consultation with the indigenous community, as well as expert scientific, medical and anthropological advisors.