Northeastern Law’s Center for Global Law and Justice Files UN Brief on US Water Justice

Northeastern Law's Center for Global Law and Justice has submitted an addendum to the United Nations urging accountability for what it describes as systemic failures in U.S. water and sanitation access — failures rooted in environmental racism and worsened by recent federal rollbacks.

Northeastern Law’s Center for Global Law and Justice Files UN Brief on US Water Justice

04.09.2026 – As millions of Americans continue to lack reliable access to clean drinking water, Northeastern Law’s Center for Global Law and Justice (CGLJ) is pressing the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for what it describes as a systemic failure rooted in environmental racism. In an addendum to the CGLJ April 2025 submission to the UN, “Drinking Water and Sanitation Justice: Advancing the Human Right to Water and the Recognition of Water Injustices as Manifestations of Environmental Racism,” Professor Martha Davis, faculty co-director of CGLJ and Annaliese Woltornist ’28, a CGLJ co-op student, in collaboration with Professor Lauren Bartlett of St. Louis University School of Law, the St. Louis University School of Law Human Rights at Home Litigation Clinic and Centreville Citizens for Change, address issues raised since the United States failed to appear for its Universal Periodic Review in November 2025. The Human Rights Council has rescheduled the US review for November 2026.

The April 2026 addendum documents continued deterioration of water and sanitation infrastructure across the United States, the rollback of federal environmental justice programs under Executive Order 14151, the Justice Department's withdrawal from a landmark settlement to address sanitation failures in Lowndes County, Alabama, and the elimination of disparate impact liability from Title VI regulations — a change advocates warn will put water justice claims further out of reach for low-income Black and Brown communities. The addendum also highlights ongoing conditions in Cahokia Heights, Illinois, where residents continue to face raw sewage flooding, E. coli in tap water and years of inaction by government officials.

“During the past year, water challenges have only accelerated as the current Administration has turned a blind eye to the issues of water and sanitation access facing communities. The result is a cascade of avoidable harms, jeopardizing health and housing, and undermining communities’ wellbeing,” said Davis. “However, we can still find hope in the model programs being developed by some local and state governments in conjunction with local activists, which are described in our submission and may inspire others to take action.”

The addendum is the latest in CGLJ’s sustained body of work on the human right to water. In connection with this submission, CGLJ has also released an updated edition of its water primer, “The Human Right to Water in the United States: A Primer for Lawyers and Community Leaders”, authored by Woltornist and Davis. The primer provides a comprehensive overview of international and domestic legal frameworks governing the right to water, examines obstacles to realizing that right in the US, and offers detailed accounts of water rights advocacy in Detroit, Flint, Lowndes County and beyond.

In addition to this latest water primer, the CGLJ’s water rights series includes: (1) “The Human Right to Water: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography”; (2) “The Human Right to Water: Using Freedom of Information Laws to Understand Rising Water Rates;” (3) “The Human Right to Water: A Primer for Lawyers and Community Leaders;” (4) “A Drop in the Bucket: Water Affordability Policies in Twelve Massachusetts Communities;” (5) “Disconnected: How Household Water Shutoffs in the United States During the COVID Pandemic Violate the Human Right to Water;” (6) “Voluntary Local Reviews and the Human Right to Water,” and (7) “How Five Creative Water Utilities Are Assisting “Hard-to-Reach” Renters as Water Rates Rise.”

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