The paradox of framing water as a human right in the United States: An analysis of power and resistance

Between Confrontation and Cooperation: Right to Water Advocacy in the Courts, on the Streets, and at the Capitols in the United States

“…Most participants were local advocates located in the Central Valley in California, Flint and Detroit in Michigan, and in Appalachia, specifically eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia. While these regions are not exhaustive of the many civil society groups across the country mobilizing around the human right to water, they demonstrate the breadth and richness of community organizing (see [22] for more details). The interviews in 2018 were conducted face-to-face in the respective communities, while the interviews in 2020 were conducted online.…”

“…Across the country, the right to water emerged through large-and small-scale coalition building on various levels, from local communities to the international sphere, resulting in the social construction of the right to water from below. Such coalition building has trended within communities pushed to the margins, given their disproportionate struggles with water quality, affordability, and accessibility (see [22]). Coalitions have formed in grassroots organizations and civil society gatherings, as well as within larger, established non-governmental organizations that traditionally avoided embracing human rights frameworks.…”

“…More so than a legal framework, activists perceived and utilized human rights as a powerful framework that provides (symbolic) legitimacy for their advocacy [22]. While much of the earlier literature on socio-economic rights has focused on judicial enforcement (often motivated in response to challenges to the justiciability of socio-economic rights) [31,32], rights-based strategies are, in fact, much broader and more diverse.…”

“…Similar to Shareen Hertel's identification of a hybrid approach to rights-based social movements in India [33], we see a multi-pronged approach in the human right to water movement in the United States. Building on pre-vious work on the internal validation and collective identity developed through human rights [22] (see also [34]), we explore how activists and advocates used their power to act. They engaged on a community and social level ("on the streets"), within the political system ("at the Capitols"), and to a more limited extent in the judicial system ("in the courts").…”

“…As we explored in a companion paper, it seems perplexing that activists relied on the human right to water in a country that still challenges the need for socio-economic rights. Yet, activists expressed that the human rights framework provides empowerment and validation to the communities that are most impacted [22].…”