WND has learned that after issuing a statement
last week condemning Detroit’s decision to send water shut-off notices to tens of
thousands of customers behind in their payments, the U.N now plans to conduct
confidential policy discussions with the Obama administration to be followed by
a formal public report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
On Monday, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s
office in Geneva confirmed to WND that the U.N. plans to intervene directly in
the Detroit water crisis, determined to apply international law to judge the
U.S. in violation of human rights to safe water.
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, DWSD, announced
in March it would send shut-off notices to customers with balances more than
$150 overdue or who are more than two months behind in their payments. The
department, which said nearly half of the 324,000 water and sewerage accounts
are overdue, has put out 46,000 notices since March. About 4,500 accounts have
had their water shut off.
In response to a WND inquiry, Madoka Saji, a
human rights officer in the Special Procedures Branch of the office of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, explained in an
email Monday that the U.N. plans to intervene directly in the Detroit crisis,
because the Human Rights Council has received formal allegations the Detroit
water shut-off threatens to violate U.N.-established human rights to safe
drinking water and sanitation mandates.
Saji explained
that the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on safe water
and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, must intervene directly
with the U.S. government, first in a confidential manner and then in a public
manner.
The Associated Press noted in a report June 25
that de Albuquerque can make recommendations and lend “moral weight,” but she
has no enforcement power.
The U.N. in Geneva
further pointed out that de Albuquerque encountered similar water disconnection
cases in her first official “country mission” to the United States from Feb. 22
to March 4, 2011. Her final report, Aug. 2, 2011, recommended the
U.S. adopt a federal minimum standard on affordability for water and sanitation
in conformity with the U.N.’s International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights.
Although the United States signed the U.N.’s
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights on Oct. 5,
1977, during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. Senate
never ratified the treaty.
Saji explained to WND that de Albuquerque has a
mandate to communicate with any nation violating the U.N. covenant, whether or
not the nation has ratified the document as a treaty obligation.
In a U.N. news
release June 25, de Albuquerque stated water shut-offs due to
non-payment are only justified “if it can be shown that the resident is able to
pay but not paying,” further alleging that “when there is genuine inability to
pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections.”
In the same press
release, the U.N. Special
Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Leilana Farha,
expressed concern that children are being removed from their families and homes
because, without access to water, their housing is no longer considered
adequate.
“If these water disconnections disproportionately
affect African Americans they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties
the United States has ratified,” Farha added, strongly suggesting standards
established by the U.N.’s International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights may not be the only international law the U.N. seeks to apply
to the water shut-off crisis in Detroit.
DWSD serves approximately 700,000 Detroit
residents and an additional 4 million people in southeastern Michigan, while
selling water service to suburban communities that in turn bill their
residents.
Rush weighs in
Talk radio host Rush
Limbaugh poked fun Monday
at the U.N., Detroit and its residents, who he said have racked up
$90 million in overdue water bills.
“By the way, folks, I checked. Apparently water
bills in Detroit are the one thing not subsidized by government. That, I think,
is probably why so many in Detroit are now up in arms. They get pretty much
every social service free; they can’t understand why they’ve gotta pay for
water. I think that’s largely true.”
He said half the city’s population “has had
their water cut off because they’re not paying for it, either because they
refuse to or because they can’t.”
“The U.N. is thinking about going in there and
make sure the water is turned on for everybody, even though they can’t afford
it,” he said. “They think this is just outrageous.”
He noted the city’s efforts to emerge from
bankruptcy then wondered if President Obama is aware of the problem.
“Does Obama know that they’ve cut the water off
to so many people in Detroit? Does Obama know that the U.N. says that Detroit’s
violating international standards in his country? Does he know this? You’d
think he would be mad about this and would go tell the U.N. to pound sand.
‘Habit’ of non-payment
Last week, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., leveraged
the U.N. involvement for immediate federal emergency relief for Detroit’s
residents.
“Detroit’s water crisis did not happen in a
vacuum,” Conyers said in a statement reported by the Detroit Free Press.
“Over the past decade,” Conyers said.
“Detroiters have seen their water rates increase by 119 percent. Over this same
period, forces beyond city residents’ control –including a global financial
crisis that left one in five local residences in foreclosure and sent local
unemployment rates skyrocketing – severely undercut Detroiters’ ability to
pay.”
However, DWSD spokeswoman Curtrise Garner told
CBS Detroit that the department has programs to help customers who are “totally
in need.”
She argued that not paying the water bill has simply
become a habit among many of Detroit’s impoverished residents.
“But we also know that there are people who can
afford it, and we know this because once we shut the water off, the next day
they are paying the bill in full.”
Garner told CBS Detroit that with an estimated
half of Detroit water customers unable or unwilling to pay their bills,
activists have lobbied the United Nations to take action.
The activists contend that the planned DWSD
water shut-offs are not about recouping millions in unpaid bills but a campaign
to remove people from their homes.
“Water is the wedge,” said Detroit activist Shea
Howel.” People are being targeted at the rate of 1500 to 3000 homes a week.”
Howell pointed out DWSD is not threatening
similar disconnections against corporate clients such as Detroit Public Safety,
which owes $2.2 million in outstanding bills. Palmer Golf Club owes $2.2
million, the Joe Louis Arena/Red Wings Hockey $80,000 and Ford Field $55,000.
United front
Maude Barlow, founder of
the Blue Planet
Project, headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, in Canada, filed last
week a report to de Albuquerque protesting the Detroit water shut-offs with a
united front that included the left-leaning Michigan Welfare Rights
Organization, Food & Water Watch and the Detroit People’s Water Board.
The Barlow
report charged that Detroit’s water crisis has resulted from decades
of public policy that have put corporate business and profit ahead of the
public good and human rights.
The report alleges:
The case of water cut-offs in the City of
Detroit speaks to the deep racial divides and intractable economic and social
inequality in access to services within the United States. The burden of paying
for city services has fallen onto the residents who have stayed within the
economically depressed city, most of whom are African-American. These residents
have seen water rates rise by 119 per cent within the last decade. With
official, understated unemployment rates at a record high and the official,
understated poverty rate at about 40 percent, Detroit water bills are
unaffordable to a significant portion of the population.
“What we see is a violation of the human right
to water,” Meera Karunananthan, an international campaigner with the Blue
Planet Project, explained to Al Jazeera America on the submission of the report
to the U.N.
“The U.S. has international obligations in terms
of people’s right to water, and this is a blatant violation of that right.
We’re hoping the U.N. will put pressure on the federal government and the state
of Michigan to do something about it.”
U.S. resists U.N. on water rights
The U.S. has consistently opposed the U.N. push
to define clean water as a fundamental human right.
In 2007, the United
States government submitted a detailed
explanation of its views to the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for
Human Rights.
In it, the U.S. recognized the importance of
providing water while rejecting the view that a “right to water” exists under
current formulations of international human rights law.
The 2007 U.S. rebuttal to the U.N. argued:
Understanding how the United States addresses
these issues [equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation] requires
an understanding of the U.S. system of federalism, under which, state and local
authorities play the primary role in promoting access to safe drinking water
and sanitation. Over time, the U.S. Congress and the courts have increased the
involvement of the federal government in certain areas. Today here are a wide
range of federal laws and regulations aimed at promoting safe drinking water
and sanitation. However, state sovereignty over many water issues remains.
On Nov. 21, 2013, the
U.N. General Assembly Third Committee [Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural]
approved 11 draft resolutions including a text on the
human right to safe drinking water and sanitation that called on all
U.N. members, including the United States, “to ensure the progressive
realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation for all in
a non-discriminatory manner, while eliminating inequalities in access.”
Delia M. Arias De Léon, a Wellesley College
political science student currently serving as a WND intern at the U.N. in New
York City, contributed to this article.
Source:http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/u-n-to-intervene-in-detroit-water-shutoffs/
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/u-n-to-intervene-in-detroit-water-shutoffs/#GYOzK3ey0CwQbATK.99
Comments
The U.N., our would-be
global government, continues to poke around trying to take over our oceans, our
shores, our water, our tourist destinations, our legal system, our children,
their education, our resources and our freedom.
In the spirit of Uncle Remus, Obama Rabbit is sure to plead with Uncle
Nutbag to not throw him into the briar patch. The Michigan legislature needs to
do something with Detroit before the U.N appoints a U.S. governor to cancel our
sovereignty.
I’m sure Detroit residential
areas have turned to growing their own food in their own yards, so their water
use has increased. I also think these folks should buy water and drop other
expenses, like phones and cable TV, but I bet they haven’t. It might also help if the federal government
would stop sending immigrants to Detroit and everywhere else. Certainly the
corporate laggards should pay their water bills first.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA
Tea Party Leader
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