Search Tips
sorted by
30 shown of 143 entities
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- One approach to monitoring in informal settlements that has shown positive results is the use of participatory geographic information systems, which merge technical spatial information with a local community’s location-specific knowledge, often producing rich data including on land use, water sources, differentiated access to resources and sites of actual or potential environmental hazards. For instance, OpenStreetMap initiatives in informal settlements in Nairobi have generated detailed data indicating how many households share a toilet, whether there are gender-specific toilets, whether the toilets have disability access and whether the toilets provide sanitary bins for women (see A/69/213, para. 82).
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- With respect to sanitation, regulatory frameworks should prescribe a sufficient number of sanitation facilities within, or in the immediate vicinity, of each household (see A/HRC/12/24, para. 70). The assessment of the sanitation requirements of any community must be informed by the context, as well as the characteristics of particular groups which may have different sanitation needs (e.g. women, persons with disabilities, children). Where a piped network is not available, regulation should consider the possibility of alternative solutions, such as the construction and maintenance of sanitation facilities, and the disposal and treatment of waste water. In cases where sanitation facilities are shared, regulation should envisage a sufficient number of facilities available.
- 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
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Regulatory standards should prioritize access to both water and sanitation facilities in public places in sufficient numbers; in institutional facilities, including hospitals, schools, public transport hubs, prisons, and places of detention, at the workplace and in rented housing, taking into consideration the special needs of, inter alia, women and girls; and in relation to those without a permanent dwelling, including homeless people and nomadic communities. Regulation should separate access to water and sanitation services from land tenure, often an obstacle to accessing these services in informal settlements.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- A regulatory interpretation of physical accessibility of water and sanitation facilities should provide as minimum standards that these facilities are within safe physical reach or in the immediate vicinity of each household at all times of day and night. In its proposed indicators for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal 6, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation suggests that a round trip to access an improved drinking water source should not take longer than 30 minutes, including queuing (basic level), and that a basic level of sanitation should provide access to an improved sanitation facility not shared with other households. Furthermore, regulation should specifically address the situation of those with special needs in terms of accessibility, such as children, persons with disabilities, older persons, pregnant women, and people with special health conditions, and advise that the design of sanitation facilities accommodates their specific needs, while being technically safe to use. Places such as schools, preschools, care homes and detention centres require specific regulations to ensure physical accessibility.
- 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
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The regulation of sanitation facilities should provide that they are designed and built in a way that effectively prevents human, animal and insect contact with human excreta, and should safeguard access to safe water for handwashing, anal and genital cleansing and menstrual hygiene, and ensure mechanisms for the hygienic disposal of menstrual products (see A/HRC/12/24, para. 72). The Special Rapporteur recommends that regulations require that the specific needs of women and girls are incorporated into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of water and sanitation facilities (see A/HRC/33/49, para. 77 (h)). To that end, their participation in the design of the facilities should be sought by service providers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- To meet human rights standards, regulatory decision-making processes must ensure genuine public participation in key decisions. Every individual and group has the right to participate actively, freely and in a meaningful way in the process of setting service standards that may affect their enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation. Positive measures will often be required to ensure that all people, including women and populations in vulnerable situations, are given a real opportunity to take part in and influence the making of regulations. The Special Rapporteur cautions that attempts to ensure women’s participation through regulatory processes may not correspond to local customary norms and the implementation may subsequently fail (see A/HRC/33/49, paras. 56 and 59). Therefore, mechanisms must be put in place to involve women in formulating regulations on water and sanitation and to remove barriers to their participation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- A regulatory framework should contain positive measures or affirmative action that ensure the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation for all, in a non-discriminatory manner, while eliminating inequalities in access, including for individuals belonging to groups at risk and groups that are marginalized on the grounds of race, gender, age, disability, ethnicity, culture, religion, national or social origin or any other grounds. Such measures should target specific challenges, including: (a) prioritization of the extension of coverage of water and sanitation services to rural and deprived urban areas, while taking into account the specific needs of women and children; (b) the denial of the rights to water and sanitation to people living in informal settlements, on the grounds of their housing or land status; and (c) the lack of affordability of services for the poorest.
- 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
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur observed that the human rights framework might be incorporated in overarching policies that broadly encompass all development cooperation operations or in policies or strategies specifically designed for the water and sanitation sector. Furthermore, policies and strategies were also identified that focused on specific groups, such as women, indigenous populations and persons with disabilities, which occasionally included particular considerations for those people’s needs related to water and sanitation. However, in order to balance the multiple topics of relevance to the present report, funders’ general development cooperation policies and specific policies on water and sanitation are addressed herein.
- 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
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- The participation of women on an equal footing with men and the inclusion of disadvantaged groups is an important aspect. One project aiming to provide rural dwellers with water, sanitation and hygiene services prioritized the participation of women in committees, establishing a minimum of 50 per cent women members in those forums. It is important to highlight that active and meaningful participation cannot be reduced to such quantitative requirements, but also has to do with women’s power to influence decisions, to voice their needs, to make individual choices and to control their own lives. Counting the number of heads at meetings may be accompanied by an assessment of the actual influence of women’s participation in decision-making processes (see A/HRC/33/49).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 89c
- Paragraph text
- [Relating to funders’ policy, the Special Rapporteur recommends:] That the human rights to water and sanitation be emphasized in funders’ policy on specific groups, such as women, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples, complementing overarching development cooperation policies;
- 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
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The regulatory framework must provide a contextual meaning of the social and cultural acceptability of water and sanitation facilities. This cannot be done in a meaningful way without the genuine participation of those who use the services. While water should be of an acceptable colour, odour and taste for each personal or domestic use, these are highly subjective parameters, and perceptions of these characteristics depend on local culture, education and experience. Personal sanitation is a highly sensitive issue across regions and cultures, and differing perspectives about which sanitation solutions are acceptable must be taken into account when designing, positioning, and setting conditions for the use of sanitation facilities (see A/70/203, para. 13). Regulations should stipulate that facilities need to allow for acceptable hygiene practices in specific cultures, such as anal and genital cleansing, and menstrual hygiene (see A/HRC/12/24, para. 80). Acceptability often requires separate facilities for women and men in public spaces, and for girls and boys in schools, which should be reflected in regulatory frameworks. Regulation should play an essential role in ensuring that toilets are constructed in a way that safeguards privacy and dignity.
- 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
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- All six funders possess instruments that aim to underscore their cross-sectional development efforts to advance the interlinkage between water and sanitation and gender equality. Those efforts include taking steps to achieve greater equality by considering gender-differentiated needs and responsibility in households and communities; providing questions to be asked by operational teams throughout the stages of strategic planning, project implementation, assessment and monitoring; identifying and providing guidance on how to address gender-based challenges; using indicators throughout the project design and implementation stages to assess the integration of gender-related concerns; guaranteeing that projects will benefit a minimum proportion of female-headed households; and establishing monitoring, financial tracking and accountability systems to assess how equally women and men benefit from projects.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In other States, policies specifically concerning the water and sanitation sector contain formulations that reflect the human rights framework in rather distinct ways. For example, the water supply and sanitation assistance strategy of the Japan International Cooperation Agency reflects recognition of the declaration by the General Assembly in 2010 that access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation are basic human rights. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands indicated that the Netherlands recognized the right to safe drinking water and sanitation as basic human rights and that such recognition granted it the ability to point out, during policy discussions with partner countries, the responsibilities of the Government and the rights of the population, in particular vulnerable groups. The Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation indicated that its new water strategy also set a rights-based approach to water. An official document from Belgium on development cooperation mentioned that human rights principles, including the rights to water, health and decent work and the rights of women, children and indigenous peoples, were all important components of its normative framework. In a reference document on realizing the human rights to water and sanitation, the Government of Sweden recalled its declaration of full support for the human rights to water and sanitation and that richer States had an obligation to assist other States in fulfilling the right to water and sanitation. Spain also has strongly integrated human rights language into its development cooperation policies, aiming to adopt a rights-based approach in its cooperation policy and supporting the implementation of 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
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The fact that in many instances women and girls risk being harassed when they relieve themselves in the open or in public facilities is partly due to the structural and systematic use of stereotypes and stigma. The promotion of awareness-raising campaigns, targeted education programmes and discussion groups, among other measures, to transform both men's and women's perceptions of gender roles is therefore encouraged. Gender-based violence must be prevented and investigated, and those responsible must be prosecuted, in order to break patterns of societal acceptance of exclusion and violence based on gender norms. Recognizing that young people may grow up to be change makers, curricula in all schools should challenge gender stereotypes and encourage critical thinking.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities between genders taking into consideration the different interests, needs and priorities and recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality means that everyone must be able to enjoy the rights to water and sanitation equally. In order to attain substantive equality, therefore, it is necessary to address the specific gendered circumstances that act as barriers to the realization of those rights for women and girls in practice. States must assess existing legislation, policies and strategies, and find out to what extent the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation between men and women are equally guaranteed. On the basis of that review, remedies should be provided and gender-responsive strategies should be developed that guide policymaking and the corresponding allocation of budgets. Temporary affirmative measures will in many cases be necessary.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- In humanitarian situations, including in times of conflict or natural disaster, when water and sanitation sources are at a minimum, the specific needs of women and girls are often not taken into account. It is vital to better understand and share experiences about the kinds of responses that can be deployed across the diverse range of emergencies, including the most adequate and effective adaptations and interventions. It further requires an integrated approach and ongoing coordination among all sectors concerned. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people face additional challenges in areas affected by disaster. A recent United Nations assessment found that, in Europe, women and girls who are refugees are vulnerable to violence and lack services that specifically meet their needs, such as private bathing and sanitation facilities. Some women have reported having stopped eating or drinking to avoid going to the toilet where they felt unsafe. The reaction of Governments and others to these situations is considered inadequate and there is an emphasis on the urgent need to scale up such response efforts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- The rapid development of technology has made it possible to leverage data from new sources. There is a great opportunity to connect official statistics to citizen-generated data. States must therefore support the crucial role played by civil society, women's organizations in particular. In addition to developing innovative ways of collecting data, civil society also brings qualitative value in analysing and interpreting results to make sure that gaps in monitoring are detected and that gender-specific needs are taken into account.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Persons must be made aware of the human rights to water and sanitation and the enforceability of those rights. Women must be able to hold the State to account regarding its obligations to provide adequate sanitation facilities in, for example, public spaces like market places and transport hubs. Impunity for perpetrators of gender-based violence must be eliminated and remedies must be provided. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has recommended that all cases of violence and discrimination against women be brought under the jurisdiction of a criminal court rather than be settled through mediation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Violence
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Many women and girls risk their health using unhygienic sanitary methods, for example by using dirty rags or newspapers to collect menstrual fluids, as other methods are unaffordable, unavailable or unknown owing to stigma and taboos relating to menstruation. Although women in western countries use, on average, at least 12,000 tampons during their lifetime, there is no extensive and publicly available knowledge on the safety of tampon usage. States are required to enact regulations on the safety of industrially produced menstrual products. Different women prefer different menstrual products, which include cloths and menstrual cups. Information must be provided so women can use the product they feel most comfortable with, with the knowledge and skills to manage their menses hygienically. States must further ensure affordable health care for all women and girls, including for menstrual issues and incontinence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Affordability is of special concern to women and girls, who often have less access to financial resources than men. Women and girls need toilets for urination, defecation and menstrual hygiene management as well as for assisting younger children. Combined with women's lower access to financial resources, pay-per-use toilets with the same user fee for men and women are in practice often more expensive for women. Besides, public urinals are often free for men but not for women. To tackle this, the municipal government of Mumbai is currently constructing several toilet blocks the maintenance of which is financed through family passes instead of by charging a fee for each use. Some public toilets can be used free of charge by women and other groups that often lack access to economic resources, such as children and older people.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- According to international human rights law, States must allocate their maximum available resources to the progressive realization of human rights, paying particular attention to the rights and needs of the most marginalized segments of the population. Progressive policies and plans will be rendered worthless, however, without a proper budget. A gender analysis supports Governments in making better budget-related choices by highlighting existing gender inequalities and the impact of public expenditures on women and girls. States should promote gender mainstreaming in budgeting activities for water sanitation and hygiene, and increase women's participation in budgeting processes. Specialized units throughout government can be tasked with oversight.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Water, sanitation and hygiene policies and laws must proactively and deliberately enable the active, free and meaningful participation of women at all stages of planning, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation. As a principle, the participation of women must be fully integrated in both the legislative and the executive branches of government, and in initiatives by implementing entities, such as non-governmental organizations and service providers. Participation must take place at the micro, meso and macro levels. This includes community-level initiatives, as well as initiatives and decision-making at the national, regional and international levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 77j
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the above, the Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Develop water, sanitation and hygiene approaches, programmes and policies that proactively and deliberately enable the meaningful participation of women at all stages of planning, decision-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. States and development partners must identify, acknowledge and remove barriers to participation in decision-making in respect of water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives and ensure that women are aware of their ability to participate;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Soap and clean water for personal hygiene is of particular importance during menstruation. Women and girls must be able to use clean materials to absorb or collect menstrual fluid, and change them regularly and in privacy. They must have access to water and soap to wash their hands and body and facilities to dispose safely and hygienically of menstrual materials like pads, cups, cloths and tampons. Facilities must be easy to maintain and to clean. Women and girls with disabilities face unique challenges in accessing sanitation facilities. Their ability to properly manage their hygiene may be particularly compromised and, when facilities do not provide for the space and materials they need, they are especially prone to diseases. Service providers must ensure that facilities are designed with the participation of women and girls in order to adapt them to their biological and sociocultural needs. The specific needs of women and girls must be incorporated into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of sanitation facilities. Approaches must go beyond advocacy to address policies, infrastructure, maintenance systems and monitoring in order to ensure that services are adapted to the specific needs of users by, for example, taking into account their bodies, including their physical abilities, and their age. Formal independent regulators, as well as locally based participatory water and sanitation committees, should monitor whether regulations are well interpreted, implemented and effective.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Filling the existing data gap should be a priority in order to support gender-sensitive indicators. Systems need to be developed to improve the collection of data disaggregated by sex and other relevant factors, which are necessary to assess the impact and effectiveness of policies and programmes that aim to mainstream gender equality and enhance women's enjoyment of their human rights. Also, the collection process must take into account stereotypes and social and cultural factors that may induce gender bias in the data and be more inclusive, transparent and grounded in legally binding international human rights commitments. OHCHR has developed a guidance note on data and disaggregation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Under the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, data disaggregated by gender was not reported in a standardized fashion. There is not much data available on intra-household inequalities in terms of access to and use of sanitation and menstrual hygiene facilities or in terms of intersecting factors such as disability and age. The household cannot be considered as a homogeneous unit: its members have different roles, opinions and experiences. Finding ways to monitor intra-household inequalities may be pivotal in order to reveal gender inequalities and root causes of inequality that often remain invisible in household-level analyses. There might be a stark divide in terms of perspectives in household monitoring. A household member could respond differently to a household survey depending on whether that person is a man or a woman or has a disability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Poor menstruation management has far-reaching consequences for society as a whole and a lack of knowledge by both women and men reinforces the taboos on this topic. Education, awareness-raising and training sessions are important ways to address this problem. Moreover, it is not only girls and boys, but also teachers, government officials, community-based health workers and development staff, who must be informed on menstruation and its management. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation of India has issued menstrual hygiene management guidelines containing various approaches to creating an environment in which menstrual hygiene is considered acceptable and normal. Education on menstruation should focus on girls before menarche to ensure girls are aware of what will happen to their bodies in time.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Bodily and hormonal changes, including menstruation, affect both boys and girls and their attitudes towards each other. Men and boys must be involved in education and empowerment initiatives, as they play a role in creating unequal power relations and harmful stereotypes. Caution must be taken to not confirm or worsen stereotypes and shame. Teachers in the Plurinational State of Bolivia have noted that simply introducing the topic of menstruation embarrassed girls and increased teasing from boys. In India, the campaign "No toilet, no bride" proved to be successful in terms of men investing more in the construction of toilets, but some scholars have argued that it may have reinforced stereotypes and gender roles within marriage. More evidence and evaluations are still needed on the effectiveness of initiatives for health and schooling, as is the development of country-level expertise.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Private facilities in or close to the home provide for privacy and safety, which is particularly relevant for women and girls, particularly the eldest, those living with disabilities and those who are pregnant or menstruating. Moreover, it is estimated that one in four women over the age of 35 experiences incontinence and that women disproportionately suffer from a lack of adequate and private facilities. Having a water supply on the premises reduces the time spent on fetching water, cleaning the household and caring for family members. It eliminates the need for transportation and the risk of unsafe storage, reducing the risk of health problems such as musculoskeletal disorders and water-related diseases. States must prioritize water and sanitation provision to households not yet served and, in particular, those households where women and girls have the least adequate alternatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Worldwide, there are more possibilities for men than for women to relieve themselves outside the house. Examples include the plenty free-to-use urinals for men in the capital of the Netherlands. In India, public facilities for men outnumber those for women by up to 42 per cent. The construction of public urinals to tackle open urination by men is relatively easy, as such urinals do not need to have doors and locks, have no seat to turn up, generally use less water and are therefore a relatively cheaper solution. States must set targets to scale up adequate public sanitation facilities for women and girls.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph