Date Type 05/04/2016 JAL 08/04/2016 JUA Case No Country Mandate(s) Summary of the allegation transmitted Reply USA 2/2016 Adequate housing; United States of Extreme poverty; America Water and Sanitation; Alleged violations of the human rights of residents of Flint, Michigan, in the context of lead contamination of its water, including the rights to adequate housing, water and sanitation, and non-discrimination. According to the information received, water supplies in the city of Flint became contaminated with lead following the city’s decision in April 2014 to switch its water source to the Flint River as a cost-cutting measure and its failure to put in place corrosion control measures to mitigate the levels of lead and copper in the water. Despite the emergence of evidence and studies that indicated an elevated level of lead in the water as well as in the blood of the children in Flint, the city insisted that its water supplies complied with all state and federal standards, failing to take immediate mitigation measures. It is further suggested that Flint residents, who are in majority Black or African American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities. A previous communication raising concerns about the water crisis in Flint was sent on 2 March 2016, see above, case no. USA 1/2016. BGD 1/2016 Bangladesh 15/04/2016 Alleged imminent execution of the leader of the Bangladeshi opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami following an unfair trial. According to the information received, in 2014, Mr. Motiur Rahman Nizami, aged 72, was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh on charges of murder, rape and the mass killing of intellectuals during Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971. His trial and appeal process reportedly failed to meet international standards on fair trial and due process. On 6 March 2016, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the death sentence against him. The defendant may be executed at any time. Grave concern is expressed at the imminent execution of Mr. Nizami following judicial proceedings at the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh that may not have fulfilled the most stringent guarantees of fair trial and due process for the imposition of the death penalty. Mr. Nizami was the subject of two previous communications sent on 3 October 2012, see A/HRC/22/67, case no. BGD 6/2012, and 16 November 2012, see A/HRC/22/67, case no. BGD 8/2012. Independence of judges and lawyers; Summary executions; A/HRC/33/32 37