Sunday, June 29, 2014
Right to Water in Detroit: Update
Last week, a coalition of groups filed a complaint with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation charging Detroit with violating the human right to water. Within a few days, UN officials responded in a joint statement of three Special Rapporteurs: the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Catarina de Albuquerque, the human right to water Special Rapporteur, stated definitively that “Disconnections due to non-payment are only permissible if it can be shown that the resident is able to pay but is not paying. In other words, when there is genuine inability to pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections.”
de Albuquerque is the first individual to serve as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation. Appointed in 2008, she has been indefatigable in defining the contours of the newly articulated -- but long implicit -- right. In particular, she has been ready to scrutinize high income countries such as the U.S. for their shortcomings while also urging more explicit incorporation of human rights norms into the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals.
As de Albuquerque nears the end of her six-year tenure, a process is in place for naming her successor. New applicants for the position must file their materials in the next few days, and a new appointment will be made in September.
In the meantime, however, the current Rapporteur has effectively ensured continuity in the review and monitoring of the Detroit situation by reaching out to the two other Special Rapporteurs, both of whom were appointed in 2014. This collective attention to the Detroit situation not only adds weight to the UN's scrutiny, but also ensures that the issue will remain on the front burner even as the Human Right to Water rapporteurship transitions over the next few months.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2014/06/right-to-water-in-detroit-update-1.html
