Amanda Lyons
Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, Law School
University of Minnesota Twin Cities

IAS Short-Term Fellow; Water, Equity, and Justice

To approach water, equity, and justice from a human rights lens means focusing on the links that water has to human dignity and agency, especially for marginalized and vulnerable groups; on the role of democratic participation and accountability in creating just and sustainable water policy; and on accountability for state and private actors based on their legal, political, and ethical duties. My research and advocacy has looked at two main categories of challenges: access to safe, reliable, affordable water services for people living in poverty and the rights of rural communities affected by mega development projects that compete for water resources. I am especially interested in water justice efforts in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Thank you to IAS for this unique and extremely valuable opportunity to learn from colleagues approaching water justice from different lenses and in different contexts.

Amanda Lyons is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School. Her writing on water justice includes an entry on Water Provision, Rights, and Poverty in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals and the advocacy manual, Water & Sanitation: A People’s Guide to SDG 6, with the NGO Mining Working Group at the UN. Most recently she co-edited COVID-19 & Human Rights (Routledge, 2021) and the Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty (Elgar, 2021) with Martha F. Davis and Morten Kjaerum.