the human right to water and sanitation in emergency situations

- Part 2 - Definition of the right to water and sanitation in emergency situations
CHApTER 8 - HUMAN RIGHTS OblIGATIONS
RElATED TO SANITATION
This section illustrates that the right to sanitation is explicitly recognized in a number of human rights
instruments.
8.1. Recognition under Human rights instruments
Access to sanitation is integrally linked to the right to water. Sanitation also raises key concerns about dignity,
non-discrimination, physical security, health and other fundamental human rights. Some international
human rights treaties implicitly, or explicitly, recognize the right to sanitation (See Box 11).
BoX 11 - The right to sanitation in international human rights law
ICESCR,
Article 11
CEDAW,
Article 14
CRC,
Article 24
Implicit
recognition
Explicit
recognition
Explicit
recognition
“The State Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone
to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate
food, clothing and housing and to the continuous improvement of
living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the
realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of
international cooperation based on free consent”.
States parties shall guarantee to women, “the right to enjoy adequate living
conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water
supply, transport and communication”.
States parties shall ensure that all segments of society, “are informed, have
access to education and are supported in the use of basic knowledge of …
hygiene and environmental sanitation”.
General Comment 15 presents access to sanitation as an essential component of the right to water and
declares that States are required to ensure that everyone has access to adequate sanitation which is not
only fundamental for human dignity and privacy, but also for protecting water quality 56 . However, the General
Comment provides less guidance on how to interpret the right to sanitation.
At its fifty-sixth session in 2005, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
requested Special Rapporteur Mr. El Hadji Guissé to prepare draft guidelines for the realization of the right
to drinking water and sanitation 57 . This document offers further guidance on the conceptual content of the
56/ Indeed, GC 15 states in its paragraph 29 that: “Ensuring that everyone has access to adequate sanitation is not only
fundamental for human dignity and privacy, but is one of the principal mechanisms for protecting the quality of drinking water
supplies and resources. In accordance with the rights to health and adequate housing (see General Comments No. 4 (1991)
and 14 (2000)) States parties have an obligation to progressively extend safe sanitation services, particularly to rural and
deprived urban areas, taking into account the needs of women and children.”
57/ UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/25, Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Realization of
the Right to Drinking Water and Sanitation, Report of the Special Rapporteur, El Hadj Guissé, July 2005
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