OHCHR works in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Secretary-General`s Call to Action for Human Rights to promote the practical realization of the human rights to water and sanitation and the human rights-based approach to the implementation of SDG 6. We want to achieve this by: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for rights-based investments in water and sanitation focused on communities that have not had access to sufficient, safe, and affordable water for years, Human Rights Watch said. With a further reduction in water quantity and quality due to climate change, water and sanitation services are becoming increasingly expensive for many homes and communities in the United States. The Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) is a principle that states that safe drinking water and sanitation is a universal human right because of its importance in sustaining the life of every human being. [1] It was recognized as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 July 2010. [2] HRWS has been recognized in international law through human rights treaties, declarations and other standards. Some commentators have based an argument for the existence of a universal human right to water on grounds independent of the 2010 General Assembly resolution, such as Article 11.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); Among these commentators, those who accept the existence of international jus cogens and assume that it contains the provisions of the Covenant consider that such a right is a universally binding principle of international law. Other treaties explicitly recognized by HRWS are the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Such a discourse often gives rise to two schools of thought: it is the responsibility of the state to provide people with access to drinking water, as opposed to the privatization of distribution and sanitation. Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, argues that President Franklin D.
Roosevelt`s New Deal-era programs constituted a second Bill of Rights—positive human rights based on the idea that government must provide a basic standard of living for all citizens through laws and regulations. Since FDR`s death, many of these promises, such as guaranteeing a basic income in old age, have become quasi-constitutional and almost as sacred as the Bill of Rights itself. Eliminating discrimination and inequalities in access to water and sanitation (2015): This guidance note aims to provide guidance on non-discrimination and equal access to safe water and sanitation, with a particular focus on women and girls. Paraguay. [36] The problems concerned the failure of states to recognize indigenous communities` property rights to ancestral lands. In 1991, the state evicted the indigenous Sawhoyamaxa community from their lands, causing them to lose access to basic services such as water, food, education and health services. [36] This was within the scope of the American Convention on Human Rights; Interference with the right to life. [37] Water is included in this right as part of access to land. The courts demanded land restitution, compensation and basic goods and services, while the municipality was in the process of returning its land. [38] The court found that the termination of the existing water source, which had not met the “just and reasonable” requirements of the South African Water Services Act, was unlawful. [52] It is important to note that the Decision was adopted prior to the adoption of UN General Comment No.
15. [53] Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, health and human rights advocates have increasingly called on the U.S. government to recognize the human right to water and end the practice of local governments and utilities cutting off water supplies to insolvent households. Congress has allocated more than $1 billion in two of its COVID-19 relief programs to establish and fund the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) to help low-income households pay their water and sewer bills. It is not a permanent program and the program has been criticized for its discriminatory participation criteria. The researchers also drew attention to the importance of possible UN recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation at the end of the twentieth century. Two first attempts to define the human right to water were made in 1992 by University of the Pacific Law Professor Stephen McCaffrey[22] and Dr. Peter Gleick in 1999. [23] McCaffrey said: “Such a right could be seen as an essential part of the right to food or food, the right to health or, above all, the right to life.
[22] Gleick added: “that access to groundwater needs is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly supported by international law, declarations and government practice. [23] ESCR is not currently explicitly protected in New Zealand, either by the Human Rights Act or the Bill of Rights, so the right to water is not upheld by law. [67] The New Zealand Law Society recently indicated that our country would continue to examine the legal status of economic, social and cultural rights. [68] In 2016, there was a high-profile case known as Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v.
