June 10, 2020
...Based on decades of investigations and advocacy in the United States, (click here) Human Rights Watch’s submission analyzes the links between current disparities in Covid-19 and racial disparities in protecting:
(1) The right to health for communities of color, especially for women of color; (2) The rights to water and sanitation for communities of color;
(3) The right to be free from racial segregation;
(4) The right to be free from racially discriminatory and unnecessary policing and incarceration;
(5) The right to safe and healthy working conditions; and
(6) The right to the highest attainable standard of living. The United States is obligated under international human rights law to overcome the longstanding structural discrimination that is evident in Covid-19’s disparate racial impact....
...Access to safe and affordable water is essential to human health, and to following basic recommendations issued by US federal and independent public health experts on hand hygiene and Covid-19. Despite this, communities of color, especially Native Americans living on reservations, are facing Covid-19 without adequate access to water.
Despite the country’s wealth, many people in the United States live with unsafe drinking water. According to a UN expert, the United States ranks 36th in the world in terms of access to water and sanitation. Reports estimate that nearly 77 million US residents are served by drinking water systems with one or more violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. While the data are not available to disaggregate this number by race or income, we know that race and income are central factors in both urban and rural water vulnerabilities.
The human right to water is derived from the right to the highest attainable standard of living. However, the US government and state and municipal authorities have refused to acknowledge this basic right to water. In 2014, a US federal judge in Michigan ruled that there was “no enforceable right” to water after the city of Detroit started massive shut-offs of household water supplies if people did not pay their water bills.
The case of Flint, Michigan is well known. Under state-appointed emergency management, Flint switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-savings measure in 2014, causing the number of children with elevated lead levels in their blood to double—and in some neighborhoods to triple—after the water supply switch....
The case of Flint, Michigan is well known. Under state-appointed emergency management, Flint switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-savings measure in 2014, causing the number of children with elevated lead levels in their blood to double—and in some neighborhoods to triple—after the water supply switch....
