A/HRC/24/44
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
11 July 2013
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Twenty fourth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human
right to safe drinking water and sanitation,
Catarina de Albuquerque
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
submits the present report in accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 16/2 and
21/2. Focusing on sustainability in the realization the human rights to water and sanitation,
the Special Rapporteur examines how the rights to water and sanitation can and must be
met for present and future generations. She highlights challenges to sustainability and
particularly aggravated risks in times of economic and financial crisis. After addressing the
relevance of sustainability to the core human rights concepts of “progressive realization”
and “non-retrogression”, the Special Rapporteur explains how the normative content and
principles of the human rights to water and sanitation contribute to ensuring sustainability.
Using the human rights framework, the Special Rapporteur analyses States’
common approaches to water and sanitation, particularly in adopting measures both during
times of normalcy and during economic and financial crises, and shows how those
approaches often fail to incorporate sustainability. She then demonstrates that the human
rights framework can and should facilitate improvement in such policies. A key finding of
the report is that developing policies and programmes in accordance with human rights
standards and principles will ensure that such measures will last for future generations –
they will stand the test of time.
GE.13-15568