the human right to water and sanitation in emergency situations

- Part 2 - Definition of the right to water and sanitation in emergency situations
CHApTER 9 - DEvElOpMENTS AT THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIl
This section gives details of the latest political developments at the Human Rights Council.
“In November 2006, a number of States 66 decided to advance on-going dialogue on human rights and
water and sanitation and to give it worldwide visibility by requesting the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to conduct a detailed study on human rights obligations relating
to water and sanitation, and on the tools available to fulfil them. 67 ”. Accordingly, the OHCHR launched
a consultation process among various stakeholders 68 to which more than 90 contributions were received
69 . OHCHR held a consultation in March 2007 to follow up this process. Its report 70 was submitted to
the 6th session of the Council and concludes that: “it is now time to consider access to safe drinking water
and sanitation as a human right”. The main recommendations and conclusions are set out in Box 13.
BoX 13 - Extract from the Report of the un High Commissioner for Human Rights on
access to safe drinking water and sanitation
VI. Conclusions and Recommendations
65. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is an issue of great importance to the international
community. The considerable number of submissions received from Governments, intergovernmental
organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society are evidence not only of
the interest in this issue, but also of the growing recognition that access to safe drinking water
and sanitation must be addressed within a human rights framework. The increasing references
to safe drinking water in human rights instruments as a component of other human rights
similarly highlights the growing importance of this issue to the international community, as does
the inclusion of access to safe drinking water and sanitation amongst the Millennium Development
Goals. Importantly, an increasing number of States are recognizing safe drinking water as a human
right in their constitutions, as well as national legislation, while national courts are enforcing it as
a justiciable right.
66. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that it is now time to
consider access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right, defined as the
right to equal and non-discriminatory access to a sufficient amount of safe drinking water
for personal and domestic uses - drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes,
food preparation and personal and household hygiene - to sustain life and health. States
66/ Spain and Germany were at the forefront of this project and were followed by no less than 33 countries: Algeria,
Germany, Belgium, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Estonia, France,
Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mali, Malta, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Holland, Peru, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, East Timor, Uruguay. Countries which could oppose this resolution are Australia, China,
Egypt, the USA and India
67/ Extract from Decision 2/104 (adopted without a vote), dated 21 November 2006, which requests the OHCHR “to
conduct, within existing resources, a detailed study on the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related
to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments (…)
68/ Stakeholders as various as States, NGOs, IGOs, local governments, human rights institutions, business, universities and
individuals submitted reports and contributions
69/ Contributions are available at the following address: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/water/contributions.htm
70/ Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the scope and content of the relevant human
rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments
(A/HRC/6/3), submitted on 16 August 2007
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