Between May and August 1998, the State refused to provide Marcel Claude Reyes, Sebastián Cox Urrejola, and Arturo Longton Guerrero with the information they requested from the Foreign Investment Committee on the forestry company Trillium and the Río Condor Project, a deforestation project that could be prejudicial to the environment and to the sustainable development of Chile. The Commission stated that the refusal occurred without the State providing any valid justification under Chilean law and, supposedly, the victims had not been granted an effective judicial remedy to contest a violation of the right of access to information; in addition, they were not ensured the rights of access to information and to judicial protection, and there were no mechanisms guaranteeing the right of access to public information. The Court found that the State violated the American Convention on Human Rights.
Case Summary: Reyes et al. v. Chile, Case Summary