Environmental Justice

Access to safe, affordable water is a human right

The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use.

The International Human Right to Water

The human right to water has been recognized in international treaties and national constitutions since 2002. However, this right is being eroded by the inclusion of water and other essential services as commodities in international trade treaties and conventions. UUSC works with partners and colleague organizations to guarantee that privatization does not threaten people's right to access safe, affordable water.

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Examining the Water Crisis and Climate Change

UUSC understands that there is a global water crisis, which is the product of shifting and competing political and economic interests, depletion from environmental contamination, climate change, over-extraction and increasing population. As a human rights organization, we recognize the urgent need to respond. More people are losing their access to clean affordable water in the United States and overseas, and too often, the victims are poor people, women, and racial and ethnic minorities.

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Pursuing Shareholder Advocacy and Corporate Accountability

An important part of the Environmental Justice Program's strategy focuses on activities that hold corporate elites accountable. We have had some great success this year, pressuring private water utilities and beverage companies to address the human right to water in their operations. UUSC has partnered with Northstar Asset Management to file ashareholder resolution with PepsiCo, asking the beverage giant to adopt a human-right-to-water policy in its domestic and overseas operations. PepsiCo challenged the resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but UUSC and Northstar's resolution prevailed. The resolution will be presented to thousands of shareholders at the PepsiCo annual meeting in May 2008 in Texas.

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Featured stories about the human right to water


Right to Water May Soon Be Law in Ecuador! Ecuadorians won a major victory on July 25, 2008, when provisions to enshrine the human right to water were approved for Ecuador's new draft constitution, which will be put to a national vote in September.		Victory for Water Rights in Tanzania Water and human rights are inextricably linked, a fact that the people of Tanzania know all too well. The Tanzanian government chose to privatize the water system, and in 2003 a subsidiary of the British corporation Biwater was granted a water concession in Dar Es Salaam. But under Biwater, the water situation only deteriorated.