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  statement joined by 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 Special Rapporteur on Water, stated 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..