© ReutersCommunity groups say the government's hard-line approach to water bills is violating human rights
Two United Nations human rights experts will visit Detroit over the weekend to assess the impact of water cuts on residents, the U.N. announced on Wednesday.
According to a U.N. press release, the two experts will visit the city to "learn more about the impact of large scale water disconnections on low income, marginalized and vulnerable groups and their human rights to water and sanitation and to adequate housing."
The two human rights experts are the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, and the Special Rapporteur on the human right to water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque.
The U.N. stated Farha and Albuquerque will visit communities affected by water disconnections, and speak with local government figures and community groups.
"A response by local and federal authorities to the water shut-offs which is aligned with international human rights standards is crucial and would serve as inspiration to other cities around the world that are faced with similar challenges," the pair said in a joint statement.
The city began cutting water to households falling behind in payments earlier this year.
Over 15,000 of homes have had their water cut this year, and as many as 400 resident's water is now being shut off daily. According to a U.N. assessment earlier this year, as many as 30,000 households could be disconnected before the year is out.
Despite an outcry from community groups, in September Judge Steven Rhodes ruled the unprecedented cut-offs are legal.
"Detroit cannot afford any revenue slippages," the judge said, referring to the city's long standing financial woes.
Staring down the barrel of US$18 billion in debt, in late 2013 Detroit became the largest municipality in U.S. history to declare bankruptcy.
Since then, the city has struggled to shed its debt. Yet while the government says it needs to take a hardline approach to residents that fail to pay water bills, residents say the move violates their human rights.
"What's happening here is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis," an attorney for residents without water Alice Jennings told Democracy Now on Friday.
"Judge Rhodes, even as he ruled against us, acknowledged that the irreparable harm to children and families could occur by his ruling, if there wasn't a water restoration to these homes," Jennings stated.
Allegations that the government is violating human rights were backed by a U.N. panel in June, which found it would be unacceptable for municipal authorities to cut off water to residents genuinely unable to pay.
"Because of a high poverty rate and a high unemployment rate, relatively expensive water bills in Detroit are unaffordable for a significant portion of the population," the panel found.
"Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights," they stated.
What we need on earth is a very very VERY large one-sided (that side being 'peace' of course) bureaucracy and military, a political power so vast and far-reaching with so much dedication to achieving greater and greater technological skill and righteous decision making prowess--via that awesome technology and total devotion to it--that any and all villains who would dare to usurp and violate human rights on any level would be afraid to even try.
A panopticon run by a few truly enlightened souls is the answer and only answer to mankind's misery. Only don't call it a panopticon. Call it the pinnacle of human hierarchical endeavor.
God bless and increase the UN.
May we all be so fortunate as to be UN-loved.
ned, out