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PHRGE Forum on the Right to Water

Right to Water for Impoverished Roma Communities in Europe:
Challenges, Remedies and Common Approaches

Friday, February 18, 2022
Hybrid Event: 42 Dockser Hall & Zoom
Please REGISTER to attend virtually!

Featuring
Adam Máčaj
Human Rights Lawyer; Fulbright Scholar and PhD Candidate, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia; Visiting Researcher, Northeastern Law's Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy

Abstract: The right to drinking water and sanitation has steadily gained recognition in recent decades. Realization of access to safe and affordable water is however significantly lacking behind the normative obligations ascribed to water as a human right, even in high-income European countries. The precarious situation concerning drinking water disproportionately impacts already vulnerable groups, such as migrants and refugees, or impoverished communities. Roma communities as a distinct ethnic group across Europe suffer from widespread poverty or risk of poverty, which, when compounded with history of bias, segregation and discrimination, disproportionately deprive these communities of their right to water. The aim is to outline the existing situation of Roma communities from the viewpoint of obligations arising under right to water, as well as reflect on the comparable issues present in the United States and measures that can be undertaken to combat deprivations of right to water. In that regard, efficiency of various policy measures that show potential to address the situation will be considered, on national level and from the European Union perspective.

Adam Máčaj obtained a Master's degree in law at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in European Union law. Máčaj’s research focuses on human rights, procedural rights, the protection of vulnerable groups, and the protection of the rule of law in the European Union.

Presented by Northeastern Law's Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE)

Feb 18, 2022

12:45 pm to 2:10 pm