Advocacy Opportunities on the Human Right to Sanitation

Contact Name: 
Inga Winkler
Contact Email: 
inga.winkler@columbia.edu
Department: 
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights seeks to strengthen its programming in the area of socio-economic rights through course offerings, research and advocacy opportunities. Students have the opportunity to engage in research and advocacy beyond their classes.
 
One project we will work on over the coming year is ‘Advancing the Right to Adequate Sanitation in Alabama through the Review of U.S. Compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’. 
 
Background: In recent years, social justice advocates and grassroots groups in the U.S. and around the world have increasingly made use of human rights strategies to secure and promote the rights to water and sanitation.  While advocacy on the right to water has gained visibility, the problem of lack of access to adequate sanitation, which has devastating health and environmental impacts, has remained on the periphery. These impacts are acute in Lowndes County Alabama, a predominantly African American community, where children suffer from rare parasites, and residents have been criminalized for failing to have proper sanitation systems in place – systems they cannot afford.  
 
In an effort to raise awareness of the fact that communities in the United States continue to lack access to sanitation, advocates in Alabama have turned to international mechanisms, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and UN Special Rapporteurs in recent years. 
 
The project: Building on these efforts, students in the project will work with the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise (ACRE), an NGO that works locally to address root causes of poverty with a focus on water and sanitation. We seek to deepen the human rights analysis of the current situation in rural Alabama. Students will support efforts to frame local, national, and international advocacy in human rights terms.  One concrete aim of this work is to participate in the UN review of the US human rights record on racial discrimination, in particular by submitting a shadow report to the UN, and related advocacy to raise awareness of the domestic context and influence recommendations to the United States government.  
 
Application: 1-2 students will be selected to work on the project. Please submit a short application to Inga Winkler (inga.winkler@columbia.edu) by September 27. Please include your CV and a cover letter outlining relevant background and experience and why you are interested to work on this project.
 
The project is in collaboration with students in the Law School’s Human Rights Clinic. Students are expected to devote 5-10 hours per week to the project with some periods being more intense than others. We are currently not in a position to offer remuneration. Work on the project can be considered for internship credit for students in the HRSMA program (HRTSG9040).