Attached is A/HRC/7/L.16 - UN Human Rights Council Resolution-7th Session 2008
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http://www.cohre.org/water
COHRE - Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions
http://vague.eurecom.fr/topics/WaterRight/snews587370
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.
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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