Human Right to Water and Health

Human Right to Water:

Water is Life
We affirm that water is sacred because it gives life.  Water connects us all. Water is the foundation of our civilization and cultures.  We will raise water literacy through education, with an emphasis on future generations. The UN affirms the right to water and sanitation as basic human rights; we are responsible to help implement this.

Water is Peace
Safe water resources are shrinking and people have already started to fight over control of their water sources – as in Darfour.  Water is increasingly being treated as a commodity to be controlled by corporations for profit. This has already created conflict, and more is on the horizon.  We must not allow water to become the valued commodity that is an excuse for war.

Water is Justice
People must control their own sources of water and it must remain in the commons.  Privatization and pollution of this vital resource must stop, especially in areas affecting those that have been oppressed.  Our military must be held accountable for its actions that taint any water supply.
Water Justice is the ability of all communities to access safe, affordable water for drinking, fishing, recreational and cultural uses.

The human right to water includes the:

• Right to clean, safe, affordable drinking water and to adequate sanitation
• Right to water for growing food, not real estate
• Right to water for aquatic life
• Right to water use for human well-being, not for corporate environmental degradation.

In 2010 The United Nations General Assembly made the Human Right to Water part of its Human Rights Declaration. In 2009, California made history by passing AB 1242 in both the Assembly and the Senate, but Governor Schwarzeneger vetoed this bill. This year, 2012, it is possible that Gov. Brown will sign a new Human Right to Water bill (AB 685) (link coming soon), held over from the 2011 Legislative Session and held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
 

Information:
Co-chairs, conference call times, etc.

Take Action:

• Advocate for and support Human Right to Water law in your community and state (link to the CA bill AB 685)
• Resist the privatization of your community pubic water services to keep water in local, public and democratic control and, if your water services are provided by a private for-profit corporation, support “re-municipalize drinking and wastewater/sewer systems” (need some more information on this…relate to economic situation)
• Say No to Bottled Water

Materials:

Flyers

Our Bodies, Our Water (link coming soon)
Save the Water Study Guide (link coming soon)
Bottled Water brochure (link coming soon)  
Santa Cruz portable water system (link coming soon)
CA Human Right to Water bill AB685 (link coming soon)

Advocate/support National Trust Fund for water infrastructructure; but funding mechanism important and this hasn’t come back up because of Federal budget and economy; maybe we don’t need now already have enough actions (Food and Water Watch) global: various issues: how do we frame: we want to have emphasis on local/regional? Peak water: when the politics of water produce changes in access. (More info coming soon)

Books

Coming soon

Articles

Coming soon

Films

Peter H. Gleick, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession With Bottled Water

More coming soon

Organizations

Regional and State:
     FLOW for Water: Great Lakes
     Community Water Center (California)
     Desal Response Group (California)
     Pacific Institute: Water and Sustainability
National:
     Food and Water Watch
     Alliance for Democracy, Defending Water for Life
     Corporate Accountability International
International:
     Council of Canadians: Blue Planet Project
     Peak Water
 

Human Right to Health:

WILPF women recognize the profound impact of the corporate/military/industrial complex on human health, particularly women of reproductive age and children, through pollution of water. Exposure to such polluted water contributes to an individual’s cumulative “chemical body burden” and creates a pre-condition for disease leading to disability and death any time after exposure. Local, National and International human rights law can be used to hold states, including their corporate and military actors, accountable to advance and protect the human right to health and the realization of the human right to safe water and sanitation.
 
WILPF women recognize the profound impact of the corporate/military/industrial complex on human health, particularly women of reproductive age and children, through pollution of water. Exposure to such polluted water contributes to an individual’s cumulative “chemical body burden” and creates a pre-condition for disease leading to disability and death any time after exposure.  

Local, National and International human rights law can be used to hold states, including their corporate and military actors, accountable to advance and protect the human right to health and the realization of the human right to safe water and sanitation.

Complementing emphasis on the global need for basic sanitation as a human right, we must protect fresh water sources and people from extensive pollution by the military/industrial complex, including, for example, mining, agriculture, and energy.

Polluters regularly violate international and national laws, and use free trade agreements to challenge environmental regulations.  By linking the right to health to the right to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, the case can be made for holding governments, from the local to the global, including member States of the United Nations, accountable for the actions of their corporate and military/industrial actors.  

Take Action:
Pass a Precautionary Principle Ordinance

Materials:
Precautionary Principle (link coming soon)
Our Bodies, Our Water flyer (link coming soon)
The Human Right to Health in UN treaties  (links coming soon)

Books
Theo Colburn, Our Stolen Future
Watch interview of Dr.Theo Colborn on the Health Effects Of Water Contamination from Fracking
Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream (link coming soon)
Health and Human Rights: An International Journal

Films
Living Downstream: The Film, a cinematic feature-length documentary based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber

Organizations
Living Downstream
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative
Global Health and Human Rights Program, University of Southern California
The Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Center for Health, Environment & Justice
Science and Environmental Health Network
TEDX: The Endocrine Disruption Exchange