WUNRN
______________________________________________________________________
UN
Human Rights Council Moves Forward on the Right to Safe Water
and
Sanitation
- Resolution - Independent Expert on Water & Sanitation
On 28 February 2008, the UN Human Rights Council, the primary United Nations body for human rights issues adopted by consensus a Resolution on 'Human Rights and Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation.' Through this Resolution, the Council established a new 'Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation.' The Independent Expert will work for 3 years on two primary tasks. First, to identify, promote and exchange on best practices related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and, in that regard, to prepare a compendium of best practices; and second, to carry out further clarification of the content of human rights obligations, including non-discrimination obligations, in relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. ______________________________________________________________
WOMEN & WATER
______________________________________________________________________
COHRE - Centre on Housing Rights
& Evictions
RIGHT TO WATER
Worldwide,
over 1.1 billion individuals lack access to an affordable supply of clean water
for their basic needs. Over 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.
Many communities living in slums and low-income neighbourhoods in urban and
rural areas are charged unaffordable prices for drinking water, spend several
hours daily collecting water or have no alternative but to use contaminated
water from rivers or unprotected wells. Clean sanitation facilities are
frequently unavailable, inaccessible or insecure. Women and children bear the
brunt of this neglect. Development-related evictions and relocations – a
constant threat for slum-dwellers – can significantly reduce the access of the
affected people to water and sanitation. The imposition of cost recovery for
water services has slowed down extension of access and has led in some
situations to mass disconnections. In several countries, well-intentioned
efforts to resolve the problem have failed due to entrenched traditions of
top-down management, discrimination and corruption. Such efforts will continue
to fail until marginalised communities have the opportunity and capacity to
genuinely participate in decision-making and to hold governments fully
accountable.
The laws and policies of many countries provide scant
protection for marginalised groups and often lack enforcement mechanisms. Water
services can be disconnected without notice and without provision of an
alternative water supply despite the dire threats to life and health. Water
prices can be arbitrarily increased even where water costs constitute the bulk
of an individual or family budget. There are an insufficient number of
monitoring bodies to ensure the equitable implementation of water policies and
provide redress for violations.
Many of the people denied such basic necessities live in
countries with sufficient water supplies and finances or where the bulk of
public subsidies do not primarily benefit the poorest members of society. Thus,
the argument of scant resources cannot explain away these gross inadequacies.
Rather, it is clear that a combination of discrimination, the lack of political
will, the exclusion of communities, and inadequate legal structures result in
such conditions. Most countries lack a proper system of monitoring and
accountability to ensure the equitable implementation of water policies and
provide redress for violations.
The international community has affirmed the human right to
water in a number of international treaties, declarations and other documents.
Most notably, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted
in November 2002 a General Comment on the Right to Water setting out
international standards and obligations relating to the right to water.
General
Comment 15, United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(2002)
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