Access to Water as a Human Right

On October 13, LWV UMRR will host a discussion on the Access to Water as a Human Right.  Join us for this opportunity to talk about the next front in civil rights!  Registration is required, click the button below.  The program will be recorded, and all who register will receive the video link.  But hey, it's more fun to join in person and be part of the conversation!  

REGISTER HERE

Our speakers will be Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network.  and Jim Larew,  Attorney to the Board for the Driftless Water Defenders.  LWV UMRR Chair, Mary Ellen Miller, will lead the discussion following the presentations.

In a recent column in Common Dreams, Carolyn said "Of all the issues ... water is one of the most crucial for the simple reason that we cannot live without water. Given this necessity, access to clean water must be treated as a human right with governments charged with the ethical responsibility to serve as the trustees of water to protect it for present and future generations. This responsibility to protect access to clean water as a human right must guide their decisions on data centers and CCS facilities and other large industrial projects.

Carolyn will discuss this from the national perspective; Jim will address efforts in Iowa to change the constitution to include access to clean water as a human right.    Jim frames the struggle for clean water as the next phase in America’s civil rights journey. Drawing parallels to historical movements prompted by social violence, he characterizes the current crisis as “environmental violence”—with children suffering in hospital wards due to pollution-induced diseases. He calls for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to clean water, citing existing state-level precedents and the urgent need for federal recognition.

United Nations position:
Is water a human right? And what about sanitation? Yes and yes! The human right to water is core to the right to adequate standard of living guaranteed by the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recognized the human right to safe drinking water in 2010 and safe and dignified sanitation, as a distinct right, in 2016.
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Thanks to the tireless efforts of feminist advocates, we understand that water and sanitation are women’s rights issues. They carry the burden of collecting clean water for their families, endure harassment on their journeys to gather water or use public latrines, and face economic and social limitations because of period poverty. These problems persist in both urban and rural settings.

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