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Direct Link to Full Article:
UN Independent
Expert: Sanitation is a Matter of Human Rights
Lack of access to sanitation is an affront to human dignity. An independent expert told the Human Rights Council that the world faces a sanitation crisis, where it is estimated that 2.5 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation such as proper toilets and 1.2 billion people practise open defecation......................
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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.
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http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_womenandgirls.html
UNICEF - WOMEN & GIRLS, SANITATION
Women and girls also pay the heaviest price for poor sanitation. There are many reasons, beyond the health repercussions of inadequate sanitation, for why it is a priority issue for women and girls:
Freedom from imprisonment by daylight
In many cultures, the only time available for women or girls to defecate,
if they don't have a latrine, is after dark. Apart from the discomfort caused
by the long wait, this can cause serious illness. And there is also a risk of
harassment and assault during the night-time walk to and from the communal
defecation fields.
School enrolment and attendance
The lack of safe, separate and private sanitation and washing facilities in
schools is one of the main factors preventing girls from attending school,
particularly when menstruating.
Reduce the burden of caring for the sick
The health and lives of more than half the world's children are constantly
threatened by environmental hazards as they get sick through contact with
excreta in their environment. Caring for sick children adds to the already
heavy workload of women and girls.
Protect pregnant women from diseases
About 44 million pregnant women have sanitation-related hookworm infections
that pose a considerable health burden in developing societies.
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Subject: Sanitation - A Human Rights Imperative - Gender
WUNRN
Sanitation:
A Human Rights Imperative (4-page summary) available in English and
French. Spanish version available at: www.cohre.org/agua
download pdf [en] download pdf [fr]
Sanitation: A Human Rights Imperative (full version)
download pdf [en] download pdf [fr]
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