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Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- This section considers the various costs associated with water, sanitation and hygiene, not only direct costs, but also time costs, as well as the additional burdens that corrupt practices and inadequate governance may cause. It concludes by considering the costs of inaction.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Limiting corruption requires focused efforts by States, regulatory bodies and service providers. Introducing a strong legal structure based on human rights can provide for anti-corruption measures such as strengthening transparency and accountability mechanisms. For instance, one city in South-east Asia recognized the importance of addressing corrupt practices in order to increase access to water and sanitation for the poor, and instituted specific measures, including focused training for employees, the establishment of public offices so that customers could pay their bills directly rather than going through bill collectors, and the introduction of meters for all connections.
- 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
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
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. 26
- Paragraph text
- Affordability provisions in water and sanitation laws are quite common. For instance, in Namibia, the Water Resources Management Act requires ensuring "that all Namibians are provided with an affordable and a reliable water supply that is adequate for basic human needs". In many instances, the challenge is to translate general provisions into concrete affordability standards. Such standards are essential to ensure that tariffs are set in a way that is affordable to people and to ensure accountability. Generally, people are prepared to pay a high price for water because it is essential for so many aspects of a person's life, but this does not justify a high affordability threshold. Willingness-to-pay studies therefore often deliver limited results in terms of people's actual capacity to pay.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- It is impossible to set a generally applicable affordability standard at the global level. Any such standard would be arbitrary and cannot reflect the challenges people face in practice and the context in which they live, including how much they need to spend on housing, food and the realization of other human rights. The affordability of water and sanitation services is highly contextual, and States should therefore determine affordability standards at the national and/or local level. The human rights framework stipulates important parameters for the process of doing so, in particular in terms of participation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- When seeking to ensure affordability in practice, measures to implement human rights often need to be reconciled with broader considerations of ensuring environmental and economic sustainability. "Social sustainability" in the form of affordable access must not be jeopardized in favour of measures that aim to secure economic and environmental sustainability. To be environmentally sustainable, there must be sufficient water resources of good quality available to serve existing and future users. Water tariffs should be designed to allow for access to sufficient water for essential purposes but, where necessary, to limit use for luxuries. Water resources must be protected from pollution, which means that sanitation services must include appropriate collection, transport, treatment and disposal of wastewater to protect both public health and the environment. However, sanitation tariffs must not be so high that people avoid using the service, which could put a strain on public health.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- 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. 46
- Paragraph text
- More generally, Community-Led Total Sanitation encourages community support and assistance from better-off households to people living in greater poverty. Yet many communities are not a coherent whole; there are entrenched power asymmetries and inequalities. People not only experience different levels of poverty and deprivation, but may be marginalized on grounds of ethnicity, caste or other factors. There may be instances where community support is not forthcoming. In other instances, people may feel that they have to rely on the charitable benevolence of others rather than feel entitled to the realization of their right to sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The first step to ensuring that public financing is targeted toward the most disadvantaged is to acknowledge the inherent inequalities and biases in the current distribution of public financing. On that basis, States must adopt measures to reach the people who rely on public finance to ensure the affordability of water and sanitation services for all and to reduce inequalities in access. States need to reallocate resources to the most disadvantaged. Reallocating current public resources may mean extending access for all to citywide systems in urban areas or shifting from high-cost interventions that serve limited numbers of people to low-cost interventions that provide services to more people, particularly those who most need assistance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- One option is seeking to develop truly universal systems that include everyone. Any such universal system for distributing public finance would include people who do not need such funding to access services. This raises questions in terms of the most appropriate use of available resources. Yet this needs to be carefully balanced against the risk of being under-inclusive and leaving out parts of populations that do rely on subsidies to ensure the affordability of services. Any type of targeting risks not reaching the people who are most in need. As a general principle, from the perspective of human rights, unintended exclusion is far more serious than unintended inclusion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Where States choose to adopt universal systems for subsidizing service provision, they need to ensure that these are truly universal rather than reaching only as far as networked provision does. Financing for universal access, and indeed the universal realization of human rights, does not necessarily require one universal system. On the contrary, in many countries it will mean additional approaches that are targeted to reach people beyond utility networks.
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Targeted subsidies can be provided at the household level based on income. In many cultures, however, there is significant stigma attached to the receipt of subsidies, in particular where the application for the subsidy becomes publicly known. In a country in Africa, for example, there are subsidies available for a range of social services, but many people choose not to register even where they are eligible reportedly due to the stigma attached. One way to overcome such stigmatization would be to adopt ways of distributing subsidies that do not publicly expose people. Beyond this, however, broader cultural changes are needed in the perception of subsidies to overcome the often internalized shame and stigma of relying on public subsidies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- 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. 76
- Paragraph text
- Ensuring the affordability of water and sanitation services requires an effective legal and policy framework, which includes a strong regulatory system. The International Water Association Lisbon Charter recognizes the importance of regulation, recommending that regulators "supervise tariff schemes to ensure they are fair, sustainable and fit for purpose; promoting efficiency and affordability".
- 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
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- Above all, regulation of informal and small-scale service provision should assist in increasing access to water and sanitation for poor and marginalized households, and not hinder such access. Formalization and regulation of informal service provision must pay due attention to the impact of this process on levels of access, affordability and quality of service provision. Where States seek to replace informal service provision with formal providers, they must ensure that people can actually afford these alternatives and do not experience retrogression in the realization of their human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- Monitoring affordability is essential for assessing whether standards are being met, and whether people in fact have access to affordable services. Unless efforts are made to monitor whether services are affordable for all, States and service providers alike will struggle to provide appropriate support to individuals and households that may have difficulties in paying for services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- In terms of global monitoring, there are heightened challenges due to data gathering and comparability. The proposed goal 6.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals explicitly refers to achieving affordable drinking water for all, hence calling for including the criterion of affordability in global monitoring.
- 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
- 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
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 87g
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations. States should take the following measures:] Use public financing to support access for people living in poverty and those who are marginalized or discriminated against and eliminate inequalities in access to water and sanitation services;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- In addition, the Special Rapporteur encourages the treaty bodies and other human rights monitoring mechanisms to pay increasing attention to the affordability of water and sanitation service provision in the particular contexts people live in.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 89
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur encourages States and international organizations to further explore options for global monitoring that allow for more comprehensive monitoring of affordable access to services.
- 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
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- During the drafting of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the debates about the scope of violations of economic, social and cultural rights were definitively resolved. Initial proposals for a narrow concept of violations based on deliberate State "interference" or known failures to provide minimum essential levels of those rights were rejected. It was recognized that realizing the rights of the most disadvantaged relies also on addressing violations resulting from failures to take positive steps. States are obliged to progressively realize rights by applying "maximum available resources" and by prioritizing essential levels of access to the most marginalized. Ultimately, States have the obligation to fully realize the rights to water and sanitation by ensuring access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water and sanitation services for all.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2014
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. 18
- Paragraph text
- Under the category of direct interference, common violations take the form of (a) unjustifiable or discriminatory denial of access to water or sanitation; (b) unjustifiable disconnection from services (including from prepaid water meters), for example when people are unable to pay and are left without access to even basic services; (c) unjustifiable restrictions on access to water or sanitation, such as latrines and toilets being locked at night or fenced-off water sources; (d) unaffordable increases in pricing; (e) land grabbing or other measures resulting in forced relocation that deprive the affected persons of access to water or sanitation services without an adequate alternative; and (f) destroying or poisoning water facilities or infrastructure during armed conflict, which would violate international humanitarian law.
- 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
- 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. 24
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is pleased to see that violations of the obligation to respect, such as unjustifiable disconnections or pollution of water resources are regularly brought to court. She encourages greater attention to violations that are linked to discrimination and stigmatization and threaten the inherent and equal dignity of all human beings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Failures to protect rights in the context of service provision usually stem from a lack of regulation or lack of enforcement of such regulation. They may also be the result of negotiating service contracts that fail to protect users' rights. Violations may occur when States (a) fail to effectively regulate and control service providers in relation to safety, quantity, conditions of service or disconnections; (b) fail to regulate pricing to ensure that services are affordable for everyone; (c) fail to prevent discrimination by private actors; (d) fail to ensure that service providers extend services to marginalized households or communities; (e) fail to require provision of reasonable accommodation of disability or extenuating circumstances; or (f) fail to ensure that monitoring and complaints procedures are in place.
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 36e
- Paragraph text
- [Violations of the obligation to fulfil can be grouped in the following categories:] Failure to prioritize the necessary steps to ensure minimum essential levels of access 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
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 36f
- Paragraph text
- [Violations of the obligation to fulfil can be grouped in the following categories:] Failure to provide adequate services in public facilities and institutions and in emergency situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph