At this point it is important to restate a piece of UN Resolution 64/292 where it acknowledges “the importance of equitable access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as an integral component of the realization of all human rights.” This makes clear that, in the case of Detroit, not only is the denial of access of drinking water to thousands of impoverished people a violation of the human right to water, but also the lack of equity within that limited access is a violation. 

Changing dynamics in the economy and politics in recent years have further highlighted the need for civil society development. Vietnam is now considered a middle-income country, resulting in international donors withdrawing aid from a number of development areas, and a decrease in official development assistance grants. As such, the country has entered the longest period of economic slowdown since Doi Moi. 

Vietnam specializes in irony. Its president, Truong Tan Sang, visited the White House this Thursday, where he was expected to request a lifting of the U.S. ban on lethal weapons sales to his country, while also seeking support for a bid to join the UN Human Rights Council. The irony? Besides trying to buy weapons from the United States, a country it defeated four decades ago, Hanoi also continues to trample on human rights.

The modern world has long thought of refugees in strictly political terms, victims in a world driven by competing ideologies. But as climate change continues unabated, there is a growing population of displaced people whose homes have been rendered unlivable thanks to a wide spectrum of environmental disasters. Despite their numbers, and their need, most nations refuse to recognize their status.