UN Human Rights Council creates independent expert on water and sanitation
Palais des Nations (Photo by cmicblog/flickr)
(Geneva, 28.03.2008) Just one week after World Water Day, the UN Human Rights Council has highlighted and reacted to the human rights aspects of the water crisis. The Council unanimously adopted a resolution creating a 3-year mandate for an independent expert on water and sanitation. This decision will hopefully further advance the recognition and practical implementation of the human right to water.
"The essence of the human right to water is that citizens can hold their governments accountable", commented Danuta Sacher, Bread for the World (Germany) and member of the Steering Group of the Ecumenical Water Network. However, "many states are afraid of the legal obligations. If the Human Rights Council adopts the resolution this is an important step into the right direction".
The resolution, initiated by Germany and Spain, in the end was co-sponsored by another 40 countries. It is a reaction to last year's report of the Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) to the Human Rights Council which had highlighted that "specific, dedicated and sustained attention to safe drinking water and sanitation is currently lacking at the international level".
With an independent expert on water and sanitation, a mandate is being created which makes possible comprehensive and continuous work on water and sanitation within the United Nations human rights system. His or her task will be to collect examples of best practices in implementing the right to water and sanitation, and to contribute to the clarification of the scope and content of human rights obligations.
While the OHCHR report had come to the conclusion that "it is now time to consider access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right", a number of states nevertheless resisted the original proposition to clearly recognize the human right to water and sanitation in the resolution which created the mandate. The resolution does, however, recognize that states have human rights obligations related to access to water and sanitation.
Particularly the US, Canada, and Russia continue to struggle with the express recognition of the human right to water which most other states have already committed themselves to in different international declarations as well as increasingly in national legislation and policies.
Both governments as well as civil society are called to make good use of the potential of this new mandate and to contribute to the success of the independent expert in the three years to come.
Geneva, 28.08.2008
Released by: Secretariat of the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN)
(World Council of Churches)
Download the text of the resolution here: HRC Resolution A/HRC/7/L.16 (pdf)