NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW — Professor Martha Davis, faculty director for Northeastern Law’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy, will brief the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) today at noon about the serious crisis of water affordability in Massachusetts. A member of the Commission’s Massachusetts State Advisory Committee (Mass. SAC), Davis will present the findings of the Committee’s report,  Turning off the Tap: Massachusetts’ Looming Water Affordability Crisis, issued by the Massachusetts State Advisory Committee (SAC) to the USCCR in December 2020. Northeastern Law students Nilo Asgari ’22, Linnea Brandt ’22, Samantha Cardwell ’21 and Liam O’Leary ’20 also assisted the SAC in preparing the report, which urges Massachusetts to adopt the principle that water is a human right and to take affirmative steps to get ahead of the affordability crisis before it spirals out of control. “The regulations and policies regarding household water access are extremely complex,” said Davis, an internationally recognized expert on human rights and women’s rights.  “The SAC is to be commended for bringing a civil rights lens to this analysis, and making concrete recommendations to improve water access for all.”