life.
140. The Court further notes that after the dumping of the toxic waste, the
Respondent State failed to take all the necessary measures to mitigate the
effects and limit the damage caused to human life. This failure by the
Respondent State is a violation of several provisions of the Bamako
Convention which provide for specific measures to which States commit
themselves45.
141. On the issue of the scope the law to life in the instant case, the Court recalls
that the dumping of the toxic waste led to the death of at least seventeen
(17) people with more than one hundred thousand (100 000) contaminated.
There is therefore, no argument as to the fact that the dumping of the waste
violated the right to life. Furthermore, the Court is of the view that the
obligation to prevent the violation of the right to life is applicable not only in
in cases of death but also to all victims. Though the toxic waste had different
effects on victims, it was a automatically violated the right to life for all
persons who exposed to it. The Court finds, therefore, that the obligation of
the States to respect and guarantee the right to life stands in the face of
threats and situations which put life in danger even though the threats may
not result in death.
142. On the basis of this report, the Court notes that even though the
responsibility, inter alia, to respect the obligations of international law is
incumbent primarily on States, it is also true that this responsibility is
incumbent on companies, notably, multinational companies. In this regard,
the Court refers to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights to recall that “The responsibility of enterprises in the respect
for human rights is independent of the capacity or the determination of
states to protect human rights”.46 Such a responsibility require enterprises
to commit themselves to public policies in prevention and reparation, due
diligence in continuous identification of the consequences of their activities
45
46
See Bamako Convention, Article 4.
UN High Commission for Human Rights, Guiding principles on enterprises and human rights, 2011.
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