A/RES/70/169
The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
Recalling the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of June
1992 10 and its resolution 66/288 of 27 July 2012, entitled “The future we want”, and
emphasizing the critical importance of water and sanitation within the three
dimensions of sustainable development,
Reaffirming its resolutions 58/217 of 23 December 2003, by which it
proclaimed the period from 2005 to 2015 the International Decade for Action,
“Water for Life”, 61/192 of 20 December 2006, by which it established 2008 as the
International Year for Sanitation, and 65/153 of 20 December 2010, by which it
called upon Member States to support “Sustainable sanitation: the five -year drive to
2015”, and recalling its resolution 65/154 of 20 December 2010, by which it
declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation,
Recalling the designation of 19 November as World Toilet Day, in the context
of Sanitation for All, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 67/291 of 24 July
2013, 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,
Taking note of the relevant commitments and initiatives promoting the human
right to safe drinking water and sanitation, including the Panama Declaration,
adopted at the third Latin American Sanitation Conference, in 2013, the Kathmandu
Declaration, adopted at the fifth South Asian Conference on Sanitation, in 2013, the
2015 Dushanbe Declaration of the High-level International Conference on the
Implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, 2005 –2015,
the commitments made on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation at
the high-level meeting of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in 2014 and
the Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene, adopted at the fourth AfricaSan
Conference, in 2015,
Recalling general comment No. 15 (2002) of the Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights on the right to water (articles 11 and 12 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) 11 and the
statement on the right to sanitation of the Committee of 19 November 2010, 12 as
well as the reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the
human right to safe drinking water and sanitation,
Welcoming the work of the World Health Organization and the United Nations
Children’s Fund in the 2015 update published by their Joint Monitoring Programme
for Water Supply and Sanitation, 13
Welcoming also the fact that, according to Joint Monitoring Programme reports
of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the target
on safe drinking water of the Millennium Development Goals was formally met,
_______________
10
Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro,
3–14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales
No. E.93.I.8 and corrigendum), resolution 1, annex I.
11
Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2003, Supplement No. 2 (E/2003/22), annex IV.
12
Ibid., 2011, Supplement No. 2 (E/2011/22), annex VI.
World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund, Progress on Sanitation and Drinking
Water, Geneva, 2015.
13
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