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United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015, para. undefined
- Paragraph text
- Adequate bathing and shower installations shall be provided so that every prisoner can, and may be required to, have a bath or shower, at a temperature suitable to the climate, as frequently as necessary for general hygiene according to season and geographical region, but at least once a week in a temperate climate.
- Body
- United Nations General Assembly
- Document type
- Resolution
- Means of adoption
- Consensus
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015, para. undefined
- Paragraph text
- All accommodation provided for the use of prisoners and in particular all sleeping accommodation shall meet all requirements of health, due regard being paid to climatic conditions and particularly to cubic content of air, minimum floor space, lighting, heating and ventilation.
- Body
- United Nations General Assembly
- Document type
- Resolution
- Means of adoption
- Consensus
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Drinking water shall be available to every prisoner whenever he or she needs it.
- Body
- United Nations General Assembly
- Document type
- Resolution
- Means of adoption
- Consensus
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015, para. 1b
- Paragraph text
- [The physician or competent public health body shall regularly inspect and advise the prison director on:] The hygiene and cleanliness of the institution and the prisoners;
- Body
- United Nations General Assembly
- Document type
- Resolution
- Means of adoption
- Consensus
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015, para. 1c
- Paragraph text
- [The physician or competent public health body shall regularly inspect and advise the prison director on:] The sanitation, temperature, lighting and ventilation of the prison;
- Body
- United Nations General Assembly
- Document type
- Resolution
- Means of adoption
- Consensus
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The quality of working conditions in the fish-processing industry also raises concerns, although conditions have improved since developed countries imposed higher sanitation and hygiene standards. In a 2004 study, FAO showed that, for 9 of the 11 countries surveyed, fish workers were paid close to the minimum wage and often received much lower than the average per capita income for the country. In Chile, for example, the area home to most fish processing factories was also the area with the lowest per capita income levels. Moreover, high levels of seasonal and informal work exist in the processing sector, meaning that many workers are not employed on full-time contracts with basic labour benefits, such as sick pay, pension or maternity leave. In part owing to the many fish-processing firms in the sector, workers often fail to unionize and to enter into collective bargaining.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The situation of residents of informal settlements in many cities around the world illustrates how allocation of responsibilities among different levels of government plays out in peoples' lives. For example, a recent study considers the situation of residents of the Mukuru settlement in Nairobi. They live in windowless shacks on privately held land without sewage or water infrastructure. They have been unable to determine title through local governments and therefore lack security of tenure, rendering them ineligible to apply for basic water, sewers or electricity. With the Kenyan Constitution now recognizing "the right to accessible and adequate housing and to reasonable standards of sanitation", the challenge for local residents is to claim their rights within a complex web of regulatory schemes and decisions applied by an array of governmental actors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Disconnection of services due to an inability to pay for the service is a retrogressive measure and constitutes a violation of the human rights to water and sanitation (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 15 (2002) (E/C.12/2002/11), para. 44a). Disconnections are only permissible if it can be shown that households are able to pay but are not paying. The South African 1997 Water Services Act states that disconnections may not result in a lack of access to services for non-payment where the individual is unable to pay for basic services. More recently, France adopted the Brottes Law, which prohibits disconnections for inability to pay.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Developing countries are increasingly subject to dispute procedures brought by private companies. For example, high water prices and poor water quality following the privatization of the water supply in the Bolivian town of Cochabamba, culminated in protests against Aguas de Tunari, a subsidiary of the United States firm Bechtel. The Government succumbed to public pressure and reversed the decision to privatize, which prompted the company to bring the Government before ICSID. The case posed the fundamental question of whether the property rights of the company could trump the rights to food and to access water and sanitation. In the end, civil society pressure led to a settlement and, as a result, Bolivian water laws were amended with the 2009 Constitution guaranteeing the right to access to water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Pesticides also present a serious threat to drinking water, particularly in agricultural areas, which often depend on groundwater. While it can take several decades before pesticides applied in fields appear in water wells, high levels of herbicides in agricultural areas have already caused health problems for some communities. For example, in the United States of America, where over 70 million pounds of atrazine are used annually, runoff into water supplies has been linked to increased risk of birth defects. While atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2004, some European countries still detect it in groundwater today.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Finally, as noted above, the panel sought to mitigate the Organization's responsibility by noting that the outbreak was due not to one single event but rather to a "confluence of circumstances", including deficient water, sanitation and health-care systems. But again, apart from being inconsistent with the principal finding that MINUSTAH was indeed responsible, this construction conflates responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti on the one hand with the country's vulnerability on the other hand. The fact is that cholera would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- In coordination with relevant mandate holders, the Special Rapporteur wishes to take up the problem of laws that criminalize homelessness or activities associated with homelessness, such as sleeping in public places, and to consider the discriminatory attitudes and perceptions that often lie behind such laws. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur will explore in some depth the stigmatization and discrimination often suffered by the homeless or those with other housing status (for example, "squatters", "slum dwellers" and "public/social housing tenants"), and will build upon the previous work of mandate holders, including the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on the penalization of people living in poverty (A/66/265) and the report of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation on stigma and the realization of the right to safe drinking water and sanitation (A/HRC/21/42).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- In addition, it would be extremely valuable to monitor how gender, age, and disability-related inequalities manifest themselves in relation to water, sanitation, and hygiene in public facilities such as schools and health facilities where other human rights are also compromised. Indeed, such inequalities may be even more acute in public spaces, making the collection of data about equity and equality variables especially important in these contexts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Health financing in the context of the right to health 2012, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Primary health-care goods and services include routine health check-ups, preventive screenings, immunizations and vaccinations, services for the management of chronic illnesses, family planning services, nutrition services, maternal care and childbirth services and mental health counselling, all of which serve basic health needs at low cost and reduce the need for secondary and tertiary health care. Primary health care also includes health awareness-raising and educational services, such as sanitation and public hygiene campaigns, which have both preventative and promotional effects and empower community members to improve and maintain their health on their own.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Ensuring the inclusion of minority issues in post- 2015 development agendas 2014, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, focused her 2012 report to the Council (A/HRC/21/42) on stigmatization in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation. The report examines different manifestations of stigma in the context of the human rights to water and sanitation and explores recommendations for policymaking and solutions to prevent and respond to human rights violations resulting from stigma. The Special Rapporteur found that stigma pushes people to the margins of society and results in the rejection, avoidance and marginalization of certain groups. Access to water and sanitation for many Roma communities is notoriously precarious. Similarly, the report highlights that Dalit habitations are often systematically excluded from service provision.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Participation in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- An essential part of the budget cycle is determining whether allocations are spent as planned. Civil society can play a role in facilitating people's engagement in budget monitoring. WaterAid Nepal, for instance, has developed materials for assisting communities to monitor the Government's budgetary allocations to the water and sanitation sector. Another tool used to monitor government expenditure is the public expenditure tracking survey, a process through which residents can follow the flow of public funds. For instance, in the United Republic of Tanzania, communities use such tracking to monitor government spending of funds allocated for water and sanitation. They request explanations from the relevant authorities, which result in greater responsiveness and accountability. The methodology has received the support of the Government, which has promulgated a series of national guidelines for the process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- A growing number of regulatory bodies have been created in recent years. The Palestinian Water Sector Regulatory Council was established by Water Decree by Law No. 14 in 2014, and its mandate includes monitoring the performance of all service providers, approving water prices, issuing licences, setting qualitative standards and handling complaints. Similarly, in Portugal, Law No. 10/2014, establishing the Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority, confers on the Authority monitoring and enforcement powers and the power to regulate, which apply to all service providers. This is also the case of Brazil, a federal State, which passed a National Water and Sanitation Act in 2007 that establishes guidelines for the creation of regulatory agencies at the municipal, intermunicipal or State level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Households may also have their own water supply from a private well or borehole. Private wells may not provide a regular or year-round supply of water, with seasonal dry periods being problematic in some regions. To ensure water quality, wells must be protected from animals and other sources of contamination. Wells in high-density urban areas are often at great risk of contamination. In some instances, a household will sell water to neighbours. Although this may be safe in some rural areas, there is seldom any regulation of water quality or affordability, or of construction and maintenance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Environmental sustainability is a concern where there is not an adequate sanitation system to remove the water that is brought into a household. In urban areas, in particular, this can be a problem when water is piped into a settlement without adequate removal systems. Beyond the pollution of water bodies and the consequent impacts on health, stagnant and standing water can encourage the breeding of mosquitoes, including those responsible for spreading malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- To attend to the needs of diverse groups and ensure accountability, it is important that housing safety issues be addressed within a human rights framework. At a minimum, according to international human rights obligations, cities must ensure that there are safe places for people to reside when their homes become dangerous. Basic services like sanitation and water must be available in a manner that poses no risk to safety (see A/HRC/21/42, paras. 39 and 40) and housing design must be responsive to the needs of particular vulnerable groups, as articulated by those groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In order to resolve the controversy, the Secretary-General, to his credit, established the panel of independent experts in January 2011. In its report, issued in May 2011, the panel expressly rejected the environmental theory. Instead, it found that "the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination of the Mèyé Tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of current South Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human activity". If the experts had left it at that, the conclusion would have been that MINUSTAH peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. But they went on to claim that the dumping of faeces alone "could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies … coupled with conducive environmental and epidemiological conditions". By adding this observation, the experts suggested that nature, as well as the country's underdevelopment, were also to blame. This enabled them to reach their ultimate conclusion, that the "outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances … and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In response to the controversy provoked by this ambiguous and inconsistent assessment, the panel published a follow-up article in 2013 introducing a new formulation, that "the preponderance of the evidence and the weight of the circumstantial evidence does lead to the conclusion that personnel associated with the Mirebalais MINUSTAH facility were the most likely source of introduction of cholera into Haiti". They also noted that their scientific language had been accurately translated in a newspaper report that stated their conclusion to be that the outbreak "was almost certainly caused by a poorly constructed sanitation system installed at a rural camp used by several hundred United Nations troops from Nepal". They went on to explain why they asserted that no one was at fault: "We do not feel that this was a deliberate introduction of cholera into Haiti"; rather, it was "an accidental and unfortunate confluence of events".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Treaty bodies have increasingly addressed violations of extraterritorial obligations. The Human Rights Committee has called for the regulation and monitoring of corporate activities abroad that may violate human rights and for measures to ensure access to remedies in the event of such violations. Both the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have expressed concern about the denial by Israel of access to water and sanitation and about the destruction of infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Special Rapporteur recommends that increased attention be paid to violations of extraterritorial obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In the case of Sardinal, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ordered the authorities to assess whether a permit should be granted to build a pipeline that would withdraw water from an aquifer, in order to make sure that the pipeline would not deprive the local population of water for personal and domestic use. Without certainty that there would be sufficient water, the pipeline would violate the residents' rights, including that to a healthy environment. A French court held a public water company accountable for ensuring that the water it provided was not detrimentally impacted by agricultural runoff. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found violations, inter alia of the rights to life and to health, owing to the failure of the Government of Nigeria to monitor the impact of oil operations polluting water in the Niger Delta.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In Argentina, a court considered the situation of impoverished neighbourhoods in Córdoba, where wells had been contaminated with faecal and other matter from a water treatment plant overflowing with untreated sewage. The court ordered the municipality to take urgent measures to address the situation, including providing 200 litres of safe water per household per day until a permanent solution was found. With regard to the licensing of projects such as mining, the Special Rapporteur has received numerous communications alleging water contamination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Planning for the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2011, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- For example, the planning process for the Rights-based Development Strategy 2006-2013 of the Kiseljak municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at the identification of development priorities in terms of human rights, and included an assessment of the water infrastructure in the municipality. As the assessment showed that the situation was most severe in the Hrastovi settlement, inhabited mostly by Roma, the municipality prioritized improving the infrastructure there.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Minorities and discrimination based on caste and analogous systems of inherited status 2016, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- In Yemen, the Muhamasheen mainly reside in underdeveloped neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the capital. More than half of their households rely on external water sources such as dams, streams or wells; only two out of five households have latrines.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- For many stigmatized individuals, stigma results in a negative impact on their right to privacy when attempting to meet their water and sanitation needs. For instance, homeless people may be forced to urinate and defecate in public, given the inexistence or lack of maintenance of public facilities. During her mission to Slovenia, the Special Rapporteur met with Roma communities who were forced to defecate in the open and bathe in a stream due to the lack of adequate facilities. When doing so they were reportedly chased by the police (A/HRC/18/33/Add.2, para. 35). In these cases, the State directly interferes with people's privacy, not only by chasing them, but also by not allowing their dwellings to be connected to water supply and sewerage systems due to their alleged "illegal" status. Similar situations can be found in slums all over the world where the alleged "illegal" status of settlements results in people being denied access to facilities that would guarantee their privacy. In South Africa, a case was brought to the court concerning unenclosed toilets built by the municipality, that is, toilets that were erected without the enclosing superstructure that would hide people from view when using them. The Western Cape High Court found, inter alia, a violation of the right to privacy enshrined in article 14 of the South African Constitution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Minorities and discrimination based on caste and analogous systems of inherited status 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Caste-based discrimination confines Dalits in South Asia to certain occupations associated with their caste, which often involve the most menial tasks, such as sanitation jobs. In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, street cleaning and the handling of human waste and animal carcasses are almost exclusively performed by Dalits.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2012, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- In the context of sex workers, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a grassroots sex workers' collective in India, began organizing self-regulatory boards made up of its staff, doctors, advocates, national human rights commissioners, local politicians and officials, and sex workers themselves in a number of red-light districts. Their objectives included mitigating violence against sex workers, but also brought about improvements in access to water and sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph