WUNRN
UN Independent Expert on the Issue
of Human Rights Obligations Related
to Access to Safe Drinking Water and
Sanitation, Report to the UN 2009
Examples of Gender Excerpts:
J. EQUALITY OF WOMEN AND MEN
51.The disproportionate impact of
lack of access to sanitation on girls and women has been well researched. Girls
often drop out of school when their menstruation begins since schools
frequently lack "girls only" or otherwise appropriate sanitation
facilities. When relatives become sick from sanitation-related diseases, women
and girls often stay home to care for them, missing work and school.
Furthermore, women and girls face security risks when they are forced to
relieve themselves or to defecate in the open, or walk to toilets in the dark.
Because of widespread discrimination against women, they are not included in
the formulation of relevant policies and, therefore, their needs tend to be
neglected......
52. The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women specifically refers to
sanitation with regard to rural women, and the Committee overseeing that treaty
has regularly addressed the issue of sanitation in its concluding observations.
The Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on the Right to Education have also
specifically referred to the sanitary needs of menstruating women.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.