Mo Al Mehairbi: Advocacy Paper for the Improvement of Clean Water and Sanitation in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside

Abstract:

After the need for air to breathe, nothing is more vital for life than water.  Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the international framework of human rights has gained remarkable breadth and depth. In recent years, and within that framework, there is a widespread and rapidly growing consensus that the most basic level of human dignity enshrined in the ideal of human rights is not possible without a minimum quantity of clean water. However, that ideal is not being realised, and indeed has been actively resisted by the government of the citizens of Canada.  This project seeks to clarify the obligations of the Canadian government with respect to the provision of clean water to its citizens at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, beginning with commitments to both the letter and intent of international law.  Justifications will be respectfully demanded from the different levels of government for their current policies, and change will be demanded on behalf of those citizens of this remarkable country who are being consciously denied the minimum requirement for a decent life.  Provision of water and sanitation for the citizens of Vancouver, and in particular the Downtown Eastside (DTES) will be a specific test case, and the improvement of water resources in this region will be an objective of this project.

Research Strategy: 

In order to create a persuasive position paper, such that a more effective advocacy position can be taken, a series of research stages (1-3) will be required over a 2-3 week period before direct advocacy (4) begins.  Those stages are as follows:

• Existing law:

• What elements of formally binding or customary international law currently consider water to be a human right?  

• What elements of Canadian domestic law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

• Current Policy:

• What is the formal position of the Canadian government, British Columbia government and the City of Vancouver with respect to the right of all citizens, including those with no fixed residence, to clean water.

• What other organisations have been involved in water advocacy in Vancouver, and/or in the DTES in particular?

• Water Policy in the DTES:

• What clean water sources are currently available for public use in the DTES?

• What are the broader medical, nutritional, social, economic and political consequences of the lack of clean water availability in the DTES, Vancouver?

• What obstacles or difficulties, economic and political, exist with respect to implementing clean water availability for public use in the DTES?  What actors are associated with those difficulties?

• Advocacy:

• Direct: All government levels, with emphasis on the City of Vancouver.

• Indirect: Media

Previous literature:

Research material, in the form of both academic papers and opinion pieces, are widely available in the context of water as a human right.  The challenge is global, and has been addressed largely in two dimensions: In one, advocacy has targeted governments and international organisations; in the other, specific situations of water deprivation are highlighted, predominantly in regions of the world considered to be less developed.  In the more specific context of this paper, advocacy positions have tended to rely mostly on a normative stance, highlighting international law, and legitimately emphasising issues of human dignity.

Methodology by stages:

Stages 1 and 2: These are the simpler, but vital stages that clarify existing law commitments and the governmental response.  The bulk of this stage should be completed by the weekend of 10 October 2010.  Levels of analysis will initially be numerous, ranging from supranational to individual.

Stage 3: DTES Water status

• Clean water source survey:

• City of Vancouver data, and that for relevant smaller political units will be examined for current public sources of water and sanitation in the DTES.

• Informal interviews with City personnel, citizens of the DTES and local personalities may be used to complete the survey, in order to understand informal as well as formal water sources.

• Alternative sources of information will include civil rights, social welfare and other advocacy organisations for details not only on water issues but also including information on directly related issues such as homelessness.

• Medical, nutritional, social, economic and political impact:

• Library research will be conducted into the consequences of a lack of clean water for health in general, and for specific issues such as maternity and child development.

• Interviews may be arranged with medical staff at Vancouver medical facilities to clarify possible specific medical conditions that are exacerbated by dehydration and a lack of hygiene.

• Social and economic impacts will be assessed on the basis of information uncovered.

Stage 4: Advocacy

• Direct:

• Position Papers will be tailored, and sent to all levels of government in a direct line from the DTES to Ottawa.  Priority will be given to local levels and local concerns, but it will be placed in a broader, national context.

• Indirect:

• A list of potential print sources will be assessed, and opinion pieces tailored to the style and content of the media sources in question.  A range of sources will be approached, but the primary indirect objective will be the publication of a concise position paper/opinion piece in a Vancouver newspaper.

Initial References:

Alvarez, Ignacio J. ‘The Right to Water as a Human Right’. Linking human rights and the envlironment  Eds. Romina Picolotti and Jorge Daniel Taillant. Tucson, Ariz. : University of Arizona Press, 2003. 71-82.

Barlow, Maude. Blue Gold : the fight to stop the corporate theft of the world's water.  New York: New Press, 2002. 

BC Housing. Shelter List. http://www.bchousing.org/programs/ESP/shelter_list

Boeson, Jannik and Poul Erik Lauridsen.  ‘(Fresh) water as a human right and a global public good’   Towards new global strategies : public goods and human rights Eds. Erik André Andersen, Birgit Lindsnaes.  Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007. 393-418.

City of Vancouver. Downtown Eastside Revitalization. 2009. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/

City of Vancouver. “Portable water fountains in Vancouver”. Summer Heat in Vancouver. 11 Aug 2010. http://vancouver.ca/hotweather/fountains.htm#1

City of Vancouver. “Homelessness in Vancouver” Social Development Department: Housing Policy. 10 August 2010. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/housing/homelessness.htm

Hildering, Antoinette. ‘The Right of Access to Freshwater Resources’. International law and sustainable development : principles and practice Eds. Nico Schrijver & Friedl Weiss. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004. 405-429.

Khadka, Arjun Kumar 'The Emergence of Water as a 'Human Right' on the World Stage: Challenges and Opportunities' International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2010. 26: 1, 37-49.

Lookout Society. Solutions to Homelessness in Vancouver.  http://lookoutsociety.ca/

McCaffrey, Stephen C. ‘The Human Right to Water’. Fresh water and international economic law.  Eds. Edith Brown Weiss, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, and Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 93-115.

Miller, Christopher. Environmental rights: critical perspectives London ; New York : Routledge, 1998.

Nelson, Paul J. ‘Local Claims, International Standards and the Human Right to Water’ The international struggle for new human rights. Ed. Clifford Bob. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c2009.

Rain City Housing.  A Home for Every Person. http://www.raincityhousing.org/

Sandborn, Tom. Right to Water Position Paper. British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. http://www.bccla.org/positions/political/09Right_to_Water.pdf

Sano, Hans-Otto. ‘Development and Human Rights: The Necessary, but Partial Integration of Human Rights and Development’, Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 22, Number 3, August 2000, 734-752.

UN. Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 1966.  http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm

UN. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 1948. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with UN Habitat and the World Health Organisation. The Right to Water: Fact Sheet 35. UN: Geneva, August 2010. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet35en.pdf

Comments

[Michael Byers]

This is a very impressive start.

I think you can rely on your colleagues to do most of the work on the question of whether water is an international human right. Your task should be to apply that research to the specific problem at hand: detailing the facts, identifying solutions, and finding and pulling the levers of influence available to you (meetings with public officials, media, etc.). Please don't go too deep into the facts, since you risk being caught in a quagmire there. Solutions are just as important. And presenting a cogent, compelling case -- and making your voice heard-- are the real challenges here!

[Joshua Freedman]

Hi Mo,

I came across some very interesting observations re: The Charter, 1982 and positive rights, which might be of interest of you given your Canadian context.

On several occasions the SCC has rejected the claim that the state has social obligations to right holders, in light of the complete absence of social rights within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

See R v. Prosper (1994), Chief Justice Lamer: "It would be a very big step for this court to interpret the Charter in a manner which imposes a positive constitutional obligation on government"

See Gosselin v. Quebec (2002), Chief Justice McLachlin: section 7 restricts the state from depriving people of their rights under the code, but does not place any positive obligation on the state"

I call this to your attention because I think it brings up a significant hurdle for declaring water as a human right in this country, at least through the Judicial route. The precedent from these rulings gives the impression that so long as the Municipal government isn't actively denying access to water in the downtown eastside, they are under no actual obligation to build water fountains there. I would definitely use this evidence to strengthen your argument that a legislative route would be the most appropriate for declaring water a human right in Canada.

I stumbled upon these cases in:

Hirschl, Ran. "Canada's Contribution to the Comparative Study of Rights and Judicial Review." In The Comparative Turn. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.
--> see pg.84-85

[Mo]

Thanks for the comments so far. Josh, thanks for that, I need more info on Federal and BC law, so that's great. Dr Byers,I will certainly be focussing on solutions. The people I interviewed today had some different ideas; there was a surprising degree of disagreement, even amongst the homeless in the area. Some advocate 24 hr washrooms, whereas others (mostly those who drank rather than did drugs) said that public washrooms open at night would be full of junkies. The only concensus is that more water fountains are essential. In my view, what I have seen so far would demand over 100 such fountains between Main and Clarke. I am developing a map that will show all water sources used by the homeless population in that large area. Currently, in that whole area, there are only three publically provided 24 hr sources of drinking water, leaving some areas up to ten blocks from a source. As the need is so great, I will likely produce a tiered recommendation, stating that an immediate need would be for, say, 15 water fountains in specific areas. Tier 2 would require water in 40 additional locations in a year's time, or before the next summer begins and so on. While water as a human right is at the heart of the project, my recommendations will not solely be based on human rights. I will have multiply points of persuasion, arguing that the medical and social consequences of a lack of water have led to additional costs for the City of Vancouver, as the human rights argument could well be unpersuasive to some.

[Josh]

Hi Mo,

I would be interested in seeing your 'Source of Water' map throughout downtown Vancouver. If there is simply a lack of 24h sources that is one thing, but if there is a high concentration in affluent areas while a relatively weaker concentration in others that may amount to a denial on the part of the provider (the city).