iStock/Vladimir Cetinski
We’re just weeks in, and President Trump has already followed through on one of several campaign pledges which defy international law and norms. Trump released an executive order banning the entrance into the United States of citizens from seven majority Muslim countries. Now, with Trump’s EPA nominee Scott Pruitt nearing a confirmation vote in the U.S Senate, we’re poised to see another serious attack on universally acknowledged basic rights -- the right of all people to clean air and water.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by 192 nations including the United States, lists these among twenty-seven other inalienable human rights. No government, President, Prime Minister, or any other governing body should strip these rights away.
With the enactment of Trump’s travel ban, particularly on green card holders, President Trump flouted Article #13:
“Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country”
And his attacks on clean air and water directly contradict other elements of the UDHR, including:
Article #25:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
As well as the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment #15:
"The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights"
Under a Trump administration, with the EPA in the hands of Scott Pruitt, access to clean air and water for every family in America are directly threatened. Rather than protect the welfare of the American people, it seems they care more about satisfying the pay-to-play politics of the oil and gas industry.
While Pruitt would be sworn to protect the environment and uphold the inalienable rights of all Americans to clean air and water, his clear intention is to do the exact opposite. Pruitt will attack existing safeguards and protections that grant fossil fuel corporations carte blanche. Welcome back, Mercury pollution! Welcome back, smog! Over the next four years, America is at risk of undergoing an extensive rollback of environmental progress under President Trump and Scott Pruitt; the consequences could be profound and irreversible. Access to clean air and water is not a privilege. It’s an inalienable human right which the Trump administration should be held accountable to defend.
The U.S. Senate can get a head start on preventing this sad state of affairs by rejecting Scott Pruitt for EPA right away.