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Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Affordability, as a human rights criterion, requires that the use of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and services is accessible at a price that is affordable to all people. Paying for these services must not limit people's capacity to acquire other basic goods and services guaranteed by human rights, such as food, housing, health, clothing and education. Affordability standards must be considered together with standards of an adequate quantity and quality of water and sanitation to ensure that human rights standards are met.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Residents of informal settlements often do not enjoy formal service provision, receiving their services from a range of different, often informal and/or small-scale providers or through self-supply. For water services, this can include water kiosks, water vendors that come to a user's home, as well as piped water delivered to the household. For sanitation, there is an even larger range of types of service, from no service at all through substandard pit latrines (seldom emptied and often overflowing) to shared or community-level toilets, to connections to a rudimentary sewage system, where wastes are not treated, to small-scale sewage systems with adequate treatment plants. Given this range of services that exists outside the formal system, any pricing, subsidy or tariff system can seem irrelevant to an often substantial part of the population. In many cities, tariff structures, subsidy systems or other special measures are only accessible for households with a formal address or to a registered household or individual.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- A broader mechanism for achieving access to water and sanitation services for people living in poverty is to put in place "social protection floors". These are nationally defined basic social security guarantees that ensure access to essential services, including water and sanitation, as well as providing basic income security to those in need. Human Rights Council resolution 28/12 of 9 April 2015 acknowledged "that social protection floors may facilitate the enjoyment of human rights… safe drinking water and sanitation, in accordance with the human rights obligations of States" and encouraged "States to put in place social protection floors as part of comprehensive social protection systems" (A/HRC/RES/28/12, paras. 6 and 8). Social protection floors can be particularly relevant for achieving gender equality and protecting marginalized or disadvantaged individuals and groups. At the national level, for instance, Cambodia has made support for sanitation and water in times of emergency and crisis a key intervention under the National Social Protection Strategy for the Poor and Vulnerable. In Mexico, the federal budget for social spending, which contributes to building a social protection floor, includes water supply and sewerage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 87d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations. States should take the following measures:] Set affordability standards at the national and/or local level, based on a participatory process, involving in particular people living in poverty and other marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups, that consider all costs associated with water, sanitation and hygiene;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Ensuring access to justice for victims of a State's failure to meet any of its obligations is critical to guaranteeing that judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms do not reinforce patterns of systemic inequality and deprivation, or exclude some of the most egregious human rights violations. The Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provide that any failure to comply with human rights obligations, including obligations to progressively realize economic, social and cultural rights, constitutes a violation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur embraces a comprehensive understanding of violations of the rights to water and sanitation. Even though all types of violations of rights to water and sanitation are serious, denial of access to services due to discrimination or disconnection from services may be more easily identified as violations. Situations where States have failed to adopt reasonable measures or to allocate appropriate resources are less familiar to many courts and raise additional challenges in determining whether a violation has occurred. Yet such types of violations often involve the greatest number of victims and the most intolerable deprivations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Other violations arise from the criminalization of activities linked to access to water or sanitation, such as the prohibition of public defecation or urination when no other options are available - partially as a result of increasing closures of public facilities. The criminalization of homelessness frequently leads to serious violations of the right to sanitation, but these are rarely taken to court by affected groups, as they often face serious stigma and a constant battle to survive. However, a court in the United States struck down ordinances preventing homeless people from engaging in life-sustaining activities linked to the right to sanitation: "The harmless conduct for which they are arrested is inseparable from their involuntary condition of being homeless. Consequently, arresting homeless people for harmless acts they are forced to perform in public effectively punishes them for being homeless". On her mission to the United States, the Special Rapporteur observed circumstances among homeless people who had devised a makeshift "toilet" from which one individual carried bags of human waste to dispose of in public toilets. The Special Rapporteur noted that this may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Human Rights Committee in its review of the United States also expressed concern with respect to the criminalization of behaviours related to homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Article 2(1) of the Covenant stipulates that States must take steps to achieve progressively the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights by all appropriate means. Steps must be deliberate, concrete and targeted as clearly as possible towards the full realization of human rights. Where resource constraints prevent a State from fully realizing the rights to water and sanitation immediately there is an immediate obligation to adopt a strategy for the realization of those rights. To assess progress towards the full realization of human rights, States must monitor progress. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regularly calls on countries to put into place mechanisms for that purpose.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Courts have held in a number of circumstances that minimum essential levels of water and sanitation must be ensured immediately. In circumstances where capacity existed, the Constitutional Court of Colombia held that the authorities had to connect housing to water and sewerage and to ensure a sufficient daily amount of water. The Supreme Court of India dealt with lack of basic sanitation in more desperate circumstances, in a case where informal settlements collectively complained that the cesspits used for sanitation were overflowing and causing serious health concerns. The Court ordered the municipality to construct a sufficient number of public latrines and to provide water supply and desludging services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- While remedies have been provided in the context of discrimination on account of race or minority status, there are fewer examples of such remedies when discrimination is on other grounds, such as property or socio-economic status, including for those living in poverty, those residing in informal settlements, the homeless and similarly marginalized or vulnerable groups. Discrimination on any prohibited grounds is a violation of the rights to water and sanitation, and access to justice must be ensured for the full scope of prohibited discrimination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- The purpose of a more focused consideration of violations of the rights to water and sanitation is to promote more concerted action to ensure access to justice. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights points out that "all victims of violations of the right to water should be entitled to adequate reparation, including restitution, compensation, satisfaction or guarantees of non-repetition".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 83e
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur therefore focuses her recommendations on how to more effectively ensure that violations are identified, prevented and remedied, with an emphasis on those areas which have been most neglected. She recommends that States:] Raise awareness on economic, social and cultural rights and the human rights to water and sanitation in particular so that individuals know their rights and will be able to claim them in the case of violations;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- State funders have obligations to respect human rights in other countries, to refrain from actions that interfere with the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 15 (2002) on the right to water, para. 31) and to facilitate the realization of those rights through the provision of water supply and sanitation services, financial and technical assistance and necessary aid (A/71/302, para. 11). Accordingly, as part of the Governments of those States, development cooperation agencies (for example, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the French Development Agency) have the obligation to comply with the human rights to water and sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law defines the obligations of States with respect to taking appropriate measures, including through international assistance and cooperation, to the maximum of their available resources, towards the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Resolution 24/18 of the Human Rights Council recognized "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 and acceptable, and that provides privacy and ensures dignity." Building on this definition, the earlier work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (see E/C.12/2002/11 and A/HRC/12/24) and of the former Special Rapporteur (see A/HRC/12/24), this section seeks to clarify the meaning of human rights standards and principles for sanitation, water and hygiene, in the light of different types of services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- The human right to sanitation requires services to be available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable. The former Special Rapporteur defined sanitation as a "system for the collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta and associated hygiene. States must ensure without discrimination that everyone has physical and economic access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, which is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable, provides privacy and ensures dignity" (see A/HRC/12/24, para. 63).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Beyond an individual's access to a latrine or toilet, sanitation also has an important public health dimension. Adequate sanitation not only guarantees an individual's access, but also protects the human rights of others, including their rights to life, health, water and a healthy environment, by ensuring that the environment in which they live is not contaminated with faeces (see A/68/264).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Human rights require that where sanitation facilities are shared, including at the work place or health and other public institutions, there be a sufficient number of sanitation facilities with associated services to ensure that waiting times are not unreasonably long. Sanitation facilities must be reliably accessible to satisfy all needs throughout day and night, whether at home, the workplace or in public institutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Human rights require that sanitation facilities must be hygienically safe to use and easy to clean and maintain. They must effectively prevent human and animal, including insect, contact with human excreta to avert the spread of disease. Manual emptying of pit latrines or septic tanks should be avoided as it is considered unsafe (as well as culturally unacceptable in many places, which may lead to the stigmatization of those burdened with this task), meaning that mechanized alternatives that effectively prevent direct contact with human excreta should be used. Regular cleaning, emptying of pits or other places that collect human excreta and maintenance are essential for ensuring the sustainability of sanitation facilities and continued access. Sanitation facilities must also be technically safe to use, which means that the superstructure is stable and the floor and hole to the pit are designed in a way that reduces the risk of accidents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Use of sanitation facilities and services must be available at a price that is affordable to all people (see A/HRC/30/39). This must include all associated costs, ranging from regular tariffs to connection fees in the case of networked provision, to costs of on-site solutions such as the construction or maintenance of pit latrines and septic tanks. There are often costs that go unrecognized when planning for technical solutions. For example, on-site technologies may require regular maintenance, including the emptying of pits or septic tanks and the sludge management. Sanitation based on a flush toilet generally requires payment for additional quantities of water. Paying for these services must not limit people's capacity to acquire other basic goods and services guaranteed by human rights, such as the right to food, housing, health and education. Affordability does not necessarily require services to be provided free of charge. People are generally expected to contribute according to their means. However, when people are unable, for reasons beyond their control, to access sanitation through their own means, the State is obliged to find solutions for ensuring their access to sanitation free of charge.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Hygiene facilities, such as hand-washing stations or disposal units for sanitary products, must be safe to use and easy to clean. Sanitation facilities must ensure access to safe water for hand washing, menstrual hygiene, and anal and genital cleansing. They must also include mechanisms for the hygienic disposal of menstrual products and nappies. Good hygiene practices require hygiene promotion and education to ensure good hand-washing, proper use of toilets and menstrual hygiene, encouraging individuals to prepare and consume food in a hygienic manner that respects the safety and well-being of others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- [People need to have access to information:] To make decisions about their daily use of water, sanitation and hygiene services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- The final category of service delivery is self-supply. For sanitation, this is probably the most common form of access in rural areas and in many informal settlements, and is also widespread for households' access to water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Communal or shared sanitation options, especially between many households, should never be seen as an adequate long-term solution. However, in some contexts, they are a short- to medium-term solution, necessary owing to limited urban planning and insufficient resources. Where communal or shared latrines are used, States should take measures to ensure privacy, safety and hygiene, affordability and sustainability. They should also ensure that there is a plan with set targets to upgrade this form of sanitation to options that comply fully with the right to sanitation within a fixed time-frame. Without this long-term commitment and planning, solutions that are considered to be short-term often end up being long-term solutions. Without suitable regulation, none of these services can be guaranteed to comply with human rights, for quality, affordability, safety or acceptability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- In principle, States are obliged to progressively realize economic, social and cultural rights, although there are some immediate obligations, such as non discrimination. The human rights framework acknowledges that the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights takes time in many States. However, States have to move towards the goal of full realization as expeditiously and efficiently as possible. Where they have the capacity to realize the human rights to water and sanitation in full, they have an obligation to do so. All States must undertake deliberate, targeted and concrete steps to that end. The concept of progressive realization does not leave the realization of human rights to the States' discretion. It is qualified by an obligation to devote the maximum of available resources towards the realization of human rights. While difficult to measure in concrete terms, the principle of using the maximum available resources sets an objective standard for compliance with human rights obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights relies on the standard of reasonableness and has developed criteria to assess whether the measures taken by States are reasonable, including: (a) The extent to which the measures taken were deliberate, concrete and targeted towards the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights; (b) Whether the State party exercised its discretion in a non discriminatory and non-arbitrary manner; (c) Whether the steps had taken into account the precarious situation of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups and, whether they were non discriminatory, and whether they prioritized grave situations or situations of risk (see E/C.12/2007/1, para. 8).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- Progressive realization has two components: progressively moving towards universal access by reaching more people and progressively moving towards better levels of service that fully meet human rights standards. Human rights do not include minimum standards such as access to a latrine at a particular distance from the home or a minimum essential amount of water. The human rights to water and sanitation must ensure an adequate standard of living, which could, for instance, require a latrine or toilet on the premises and an adequate quantity of water supplied within the home. With regard to hygiene, human rights also do not include minimum standards such as a "tippy-tap" in a household's back yard. The requirement of an adequate standard of living may include a tap within the home for hand-washing, as well as adequate facilities to practice menstrual hygiene. States that have already achieved an essential level of service have to move beyond this in order to ensure the full realization of the human rights to sanitation and water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Substantive equality requires prioritizing the provision of services to these groups and individuals who have been disadvantaged. Such redistribution is most obvious in relation to (material) resources and benefits, such as provision of water, sanitation and hygiene services. However, disadvantages and the necessary (re)distribution extend to the underlying structural factors, such as decision-making power, and the ability to make and exercise choices. Generally‚ a failure on the part of the State to ensure that the human rights to water and sanitation are met is also indicative of other failures, such as discrimination and inequalities in access to housing, health, food and education.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- The human rights framework is very clear in stating that States must not allow their investment strategies to favour better-off neighbourhoods over more disadvantaged communities. In many instances, disadvantaged communities that do not even enjoy an essential level of water, sanitation and hygiene services have needs that must be met immediately. Meeting these immediate needs may require more basic solutions at initial stages, even if that implies a second investment later to upgrade these services. However, such planning decisions must take great care for double investments to not represent an irresponsible use of public funds and a possible compromise of other human rights. The human rights framework does not allow States to ignore the immediate needs with promises of a long-term strategy that will eventually reach the entire population, including the most marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and communities. The human rights framework conveys an urgency to meet and prioritize these needs. In a judgement on the right to housing and related socioeconomic rights, including water and sanitation, the South African Constitutional Court articulated that the Government must adopt programmes that are balanced and flexible, and take account of short-, medium- and long-term needs. In balancing these requirements, States must not neglect the parts of the population whose needs are most urgent, but must take these needs into account immediately, and must ensure that a significant number of people in desperate need are afforded relief.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 99a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Use the human rights framework for water, sanitation and hygiene to identify appropriate types of services and to ensure that services are available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable to all;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph