FLINT WATER CRISIS

UN experts raise human rights concerns in Flint

Todd Spangler
Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON – Three United Nations experts said Tuesday the public health crisis caused by high levels of lead in Flint’s water calls for actions to address “serious human rights concerns” in the Michigan city, with one of them adding that the circumstances that led to it wouldn’t have happened if Flint “was well-off or overwhelmingly white.”

The report came the day before President Barack Obama travels to Flint for the first time since declaring an emergency existed there in mid-January and prompted a reply by White House press secretary Josh Earnest, who acknowledged that “the fact that something like this happened in a community that is so economically disadvantaged is something that troubles the president.”

Obama is to hold a roundtable discussion with Flint residents on Wednesday; meet with Gov. Rick Snyder, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and others; and deliver a speech at Northwestern High School.

Snyder to attend briefing with Obama in Flint

The UN News Centre, the media arm of the global organization, released an article Tuesday saying the experts on issues of poverty, water and sanitation, and housing believe the Flint case “dramatically illustrates the suffering and difficulties that flow from failing to recognize that water is a human right, not ensuring that basic services are provided in a non-discriminatory manner, and treating those who live in poverty in ways that exacerbate their plight.”


The independent experts or “special rapporteurs” were appointed by the United Nations' Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which typically makes such appointments to learn more about specific situations in a country or potential human rights issue. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work, the UN News Centre said.

In this photo taken March 21, 2016, the Flint Water Plant water tower is seen in Flint.

Saying a drop-off in federal funding for water infrastructure in recent years has disproportionately affected poorer cities like Flint, the experts said elected officials in the U.S. owed it to residents to be more vigilant in protecting the water supply and responding to concerns about water quality.

State officials failed to require corrosion control, which could have kept lead from leaching from old pipes when Flint changed its water source in 2014 at a time a state-appointed manager controlled day-to-day operations in the city. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has been criticized for not acting quickly enough to respond.

“Decisions would never have been made in the high-handed and cavalier manner that occurred in Flint if the affected population group was well-off or overwhelmingly white,” said one of the experts, Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. “Elected officials would have been much more careful … and official accountability would have been insisted upon much sooner.”

Léo Heller, special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and Leilani Farha, special rapporteur on adequate housing, also issued statements raising human rights concerns about the crisis in Flint.

Earlier this year, activists from Michigan visited New York City to testify before the United Nations' Commission for Social Development on water issues in Flint and Detroit, later asking the UN to send a fact-finding mission to Flint.

With several federal and state investigations into the Flint crisis ongoing, Earnest declined to talk at length about who may be responsible, but he added: “I think the president is concerned that there was a failure on the part of government officials to ensure that the people of Flint were protected. And there’s a lot of work that’s gone into determining exactly how and why that happened.”

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.