RES/27/7 The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation

GE.14-17787 (E)

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Human Rights Council Twenty-seventh session

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

27/7

The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming all previous relevant resolutions of the Human Rights Council, inter

alia, resolutions 7/22 of 28 March 2008, 12/8 of 1 October 2009, 15/9 of 30 September

2010, 16/2 of 24 March 2011, 18/1 of 28 September 2011, 21/2 of 27 September 2012 and

24/18 of 27 September 2013,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 64/292 of 28 July 2010, in which the

Assembly recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human

right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights, as well as

resolution 68/157 of 18 December 2013, in which the Assembly reaffirmed by consensus

the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,

Recalling also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International

Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against

Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities,

Recalling further the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which reaffirms

that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, including

the right to development,

Recalling Human Rights Council resolution 25/11 of 27 March 2014 on the question

of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights, in which the

Council underlined the importance of an effective remedy for violations of economic, social

and cultural rights,

Reaffirming the commitment to human rights as expressed in General Assembly

resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000, entitled “United Nations Millennium Declaration”,

and its follow-up resolutions 60/1 of 16 September 2005, entitled “2005 World Summit

Outcome”, and 65/1 of 22 September 2010, entitled “Keeping the promise: united to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals”, as well as in resolutions 66/288 of 11

September 2012, entitled “The future we want”, and 68/6 of 9 October 2013, entitled

“Outcome document of the special event to follow up efforts made towards achieving the

Millennium Development Goals”,

Bearing in mind the commitments made by the international community to achieve

fully the Millennium Development Goals, and stressing in that context the resolve of Heads

of State and Government, as expressed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to

halve, by 2015, the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water, and

to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, as agreed in the Plan of

Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation”) and the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the

General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals entitled “Keeping the promise:

united to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”,

Taking note of relevant commitments and initiatives promoting the human right to

safe drinking water and sanitation, including the Abuja Declaration, adopted at the first

Africa-South America Summit, in 2006; the Sharm el-Sheikh Final Document, adopted at

the Fifteenth Summit Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Movement of

Non-Aligned Countries, in 2009; the Panama Declaration, adopted at the third Latin

American and Caribbean Conference on Sanitation, in 2013; the Kathmandu Declaration,

adopted at the fifth South Asian Conference on Sanitation, in 2013; and the commitments

made on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation at the Sanitation and Water

for All High-Level Meeting, in 2014,

Taking note with appreciation of the work of the World Health Organization and the

United Nations Children’s Fund in their 2014 update on the Joint Monitoring Programme

for Water Supply and Sanitation,

Welcoming the fact that, according to the 2012 Joint Monitoring Programme report

of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Millennium

Development Goal target relating to the reduction by 50 per cent of people without access

to an improved water source was formally met five years before its deadline of 2015, while

being deeply concerned, however, that, according to the 2014 Joint Monitoring Programme

update, a large number of the world’s population still does not enjoy access to safe drinking

water, as 748 million people, nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, still lack access to

improved drinking-water sources, and that at least 1.8 billion people are estimated to be

using an improved or unimproved drinking water source that is unsafe,

Deeply concerned that, according to the 2014 Joint Monitoring Programme update,

more than 2.5 billion people still do not have access to improved sanitation facilities,

including 1 billion people who still practice open defecation, and that the world remains off

track to meet the sanitation component of Millennium Development Goal 7, which called

for halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to an improved

sanitation facility; and welcoming therefore the emphasis placed by States on the topic of

sanitation, for instance in General Assembly resolution 65/1 of 22 September 2010, in

which States committed to, inter alia, redouble efforts to close the sanitation gap through

scaled-up ground-level action, and the proclamation of 19 November as World Toilet Day

in the context of Sanitation for All, pursuant to Assembly resolution 67/291 of 24 July

2013,

Concerned that the official figures do not fully capture the dimensions of drinking

water safety, affordability of services and safe management of excreta and wastewater, and

therefore underestimate the numbers of those without access to safe and affordable drinking

water and safely managed and affordable sanitation, and highlighting in this context the

need to adequately monitor the safety of drinking water and sanitation in order to obtain

data that capture those dimensions as a critical part of securing access to safe drinking

water and the safe management of sanitation,

Reaffirming that non-discrimination and equality are fundamental human rights

principles, and concerned that inequalities in the realization of the right to safe drinking

water and sanitation persist, inter alia, between urban and rural areas and between formal

and informal areas in cities, and insisting that much remains to be done on safety, equality

and non-discrimination issues,

Concerned that the lack of access to adequate water and sanitation services,

including menstrual hygiene management, and the widespread stigma associated with

menstruation have a negative impact on gender equality and the human rights of women

and girls,

Recognizing that, in realizing the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation

as well as other human rights for a rapidly growing world population, States should

increasingly pursue integrated approaches and strengthen their water resource management,

including by improving their wastewater treatment and by preventing and reducing surface

and groundwater pollution,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 67/291, entitled “Sanitation for All”, in

which the Assembly encouraged all Member States, as well as the organizations of the

United Nations system and international organizations and other stakeholders, to approach

the sanitation issue in a much broader context and to encompass all its aspects, including

hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, sewerage and wastewater

treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management,

Affirming the need to adequately consider the human right to safe drinking water and

sanitation in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda, in particular while

defining concrete goals, targets and indicators,

Reaffirming its encouragement to Member States to intensify global partnerships for

development as a means to achieve and sustain the Millennium Development Goal targets

on water and sanitation,

Reaffirming also the importance of national programmes and policies in ensuring the

progressive realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,

Affirming the importance of regional and international technical cooperation, where

appropriate, as a means to promote the progressive realization of the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation, without any prejudice to questions of international water law,

including international watercourse law,

Reaffirming that the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation entitles

everyone, without discrimination, to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically

accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use and to have physical and

affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, socially

and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity;

1. Reaffirms that the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is

essential for the full enjoyment of life and to all human rights, and recalls that it is derived

from the right to an adequate standard of living and is inextricably related to the right to the

highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as to the right to life and

human dignity;

2. Recalls that safe drinking water and sanitation must be progressively made

available for present and future generations, without discrimination, and that the provision

of services today should safeguard the ability in the future to realize the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation;

3. Alarmed by the fact that, according to the 2014 Joint Monitoring Programme

update, the percentage of the global population without access to an improved sanitation

facility decreased by only 7 per cent between 1990 and 2012 and that, if current trends

continue, the Millennium Development Goal target on sanitation will be missed by more

than half a billion people, and calls upon all Member States to continue to support the

global effort to realize the goals of the advocacy campaign “Sustainable sanitation: the five-

year drive to 2015”, including action to eliminate the practice of open defecation, as called

for by the Deputy Secretary-General on 28 May 2014;

4. Welcomes the fact that the Open Working Group on Sustainable

Development Goals proposed in its outcome document a goal on water and sanitation and

targets on universal access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, highlighting in

particular the dimensions of safety, affordability, adequacy, equality, participation and

sustainability, that it proposed objectives to end open defecation and to improve wastewater

treatment, and that special attention be given to the needs of women and girls and those in

vulnerable situations, and invites States to consider adequately the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

5. Also welcomes the work of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation, the comprehensive, transparent and inclusive consultations

conducted with relevant and interested actors from all regions for her thematic reports and

the undertaking of country missions;

6. Further welcomes the annual report of the Special Rapporteur submitted to

the General Assembly on managing wastewater, curbing water pollution and improving

water quality for the realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,1 in

which she emphasized the need to ensure that respect for, protection of and fulfilment of

human rights are integrated into wastewater management and to develop a holistic approach

to sustainable water resource management, including wastewater management;

7. Welcomes the annual report of the Special Rapporteur submitted to the

Human Rights Council on common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation,2

and encourages Governments and other stakeholders to use, as appropriate, the “Handbook

for realizing the human rights to water and sanitation: from policy to practice”, presented in

an addendum to that report3 as a tool for the progressive realization of the human right to

safe drinking water and sanitation;

8. Reaffirms that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full

realization of all human rights and must take steps, nationally and through international

assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of their

available resources, to achieve progressively the full realization of the right to safe drinking

water and sanitation by all appropriate means, including in particular the adoption of

legislative measures in the implementation of their human rights obligations;

9. Stresses the important role of international cooperation and the technical

assistance provided by States, specialized agencies of the United Nations system and

international and development partners, as well as by donor agencies, in particular in the

timely achievement of the relevant Millennium Development Goals, and urges development

partners to adopt a human rights-based approach when designing and implementing

1 A/68/264.

2 A/HRC/27/55.

3 A/HRC/27/55/Add.3.

development programmes in support of national initiatives and plans of action related to the

right to safe drinking water and sanitation;

10. Underlines the importance of an effective remedy for violations of economic,

social and cultural rights, including the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,

and in this regard, of judicial, quasi-judicial and other appropriate remedies, including

procedures initiated by or on behalf of individuals or, as appropriate, groups of individuals,

and of adequate procedures to avoid infringements of such rights;

11. Calls upon States:

(a) To achieve progressively the full realization of the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation;

(b) To identify patterns of failure to respect, protect or fulfil the human right to

safe drinking water and sanitation for all persons without discrimination and to address

their structural causes in policymaking and budgeting within a broader framework, while

undertaking holistic planning aimed at achieving sustainable universal access, including in

instances where the private sector, donors and non-governmental organizations are involved

in service provision;

(c) To ensure that effective remedies for violations of their obligations regarding

the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, including judicial, quasi-judicial and

other appropriate remedies, are accessible to everyone, without discrimination;

(d) To promote access for judges, prosecutors and decision-makers to adequate

human rights education and training, including on the human right to safe drinking water

and sanitation, by, inter alia, promoting or otherwise supporting ongoing training and the

inclusion of such human rights curricula in law schools and other higher education, as

appropriate;

(e) To promote the ability of human rights institutions and other relevant bodies

to identify violations of the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, to receive

complaints of violations of the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and to assist with

access to effective remedies for violations of the right to safe drinking water and sanitation;

(f) To provide comprehensive information in their periodic reports to treaty-

monitoring bodies, for the universal periodic review process and to relevant regional and

other mechanisms, as appropriate, for the identification, prevention and remedy of

violations of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation;

12. Calls upon non-State actors, including business enterprises, both

transnational and others, to comply with their responsibility to respect human rights,

including the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, including by cooperating

with State investigations into allegations of abuses of the human right to safe drinking

water and sanitation, and by progressively engaging with States to detect and remedy

abuses of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation;

13. Encourages the Special Rapporteur to facilitate, including through

engagement with relevant stakeholders, the provision of technical assistance in the area of

the implementation of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, to identify

challenges and obstacles to the full realization of the human right to safe drinking water and

sanitation, as well as protection gaps thereto, to continue to identify good practices and

enabling factors in this regard, and to monitor the way in which the human right to safe

drinking water and sanitation is being realized throughout the world;

14. Encourages all Governments to continue to respond favourably to requests

by the Special Rapporteur for visits and information, to follow up effectively on the

recommendations of the mandate holder, and to make available information on measures

taken in this regard;

15. Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the resources and assistance

necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate;

16. Decides to continue its consideration of this matter under the same agenda

item and in accordance with its programme of work.

39th meeting

25 September 2014

[Adopted without a vote.]