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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | As mentioned above, unethical recruitment practices and how they represent a risk of forced labour and trafficking in persons are not widely acknowledged within the private sector or among the stakeholders that participate in the standard-setting process. While some initiatives, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative or Social Accountability International, were created to uphold a strong labour rights component, others, such as the Marine Stewardship Council, were established primarily with an environmental focus. As a result, the level of sophistication in developing indicators that can effectively account for companies’ risk practices in this area varies from one initiative to another. The differences among initiatives regarding their original motivation may not only have an impact in the standard-setting and revision process but may also affect a multi-stakeholder initiative’s success in establishing an assurance programme that effectively monitors businesses compliance with a trafficking standard. | Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 57 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In order to effectively incorporate the human rights to water and sanitation in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, particularly with respect to development cooperation, an adequate architecture must be established to assist in the formulation, guidance, management and support of the development agenda. That architecture should ideally place the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation at the centre of the specific processes related to Goal 6 overall and targets 6.1 and 6.2 specifically. The Panel should be acutely aware of the need to base its recommendations in human rights principles and the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation, as outlined in the present report. In so doing, the Panel should be able to duly address concerns raised by civil society organizations regarding the possible propensity to predominantly favour a business-oriented approach to the sector. The establishment of an entity with greater openness and a wider plurality of stakeholders and viewpoints is essential to successfully introducing the human rights to water and sanitation into development cooperation and to achieving the water and sanitation-related goals of the 2030 Agenda. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 42 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | While support and participation of donors and NGOs in water and sanitation service delivery is welcome, there are challenges to sustainability when they become service providers and questions of accountability and transparency arise. A key risk to sustainability is the fact that few NGOs provide services on a permanent or long-term basis. Most usually disengage from projects after a certain period, which may have negative impacts on the long-term viability of services if no proper sustainability strategy is put in place. Even with the best of intentions, these systems may be responding to immediate and concrete needs to the detriment of building a system that can remain functional over time. While providing immediate access is important, it is equally central to guarantee long-term operation and maintenance, and to plan with government and communities for phased exits and local ownership. The lack of long-term focus has been linked to a lack of political incentives, particularly for donors, to put resources towards maintaining existing infrastructure, over building new ones that give better visibility for their investment and support. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of natural resource exploitation projects 2015, para. 67 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | An environment that allows for the robust exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association is essential in ensuring that natural resource exploitation is fair, transparent and accountable and benefits citizens. These rights encourage access to information, public participation and free, prior and informed consent and also highlight the gaps in the enjoyment of other rights related to land tenure, the environment and self-determination. The Special Rapporteur believes that the more consultation on any particular exploitation issue, the better. He also wishes to highlight that the benefits of such consultation - and the improved planning that results from extensive consultation - can be immense for society at large. One example is the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway, which was set up in 1990 to hold surplus wealth produced by Norwegian petroleum income. It is now the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. | Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Compendium of good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women 2017, para. 106 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The developmental process of a good practice over longer periods of time means that political shifts in national or international governance can adversely affect sustainability. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Multi-stakeholder initiatives are organizations that have established voluntary sustainability standards, often for a specific commodity or industry sector. They offer a common label for companies that commit to align to the principles set by the standard and that agree to be monitored under the relevant assurance programme under which their commitment to and compliance with the standards are verified. The voluntary set of standards developed under the initiative often covers a wide spectrum of sustainability concerns, ranging from environmental risks and corruption to working conditions and labour rights. Examples of the initiatives identified under the project include the Forest Stewardship Council, Fairtrade, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, UTZ and the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, which are also part of an umbrella organization, the ISEAL Alliance, created to strengthen these standards systems by improving their impacts, defining and advancing credibility, increasing their adoption and proliferation and improving effectiveness. | Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
The human rights of migrants on a 2035 agenda for facilitating human mobility 2017, para. 43 (Goal 3.) | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Special Rapporteur proposes the following goals:] Goal 3. Ensure respect for human rights at border controls, including return, readmission and post-return monitoring, and establish accountability mechanisms | Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Often States fail to adopt a tariff structure which is both affordable and promotes enough revenue to ensure financial sustainability. In most urban public water systems, charges often barely cover the recurrent costs of operation and maintenance, leaving little or no funds to recover the capital costs of modernization and expansion. A survey of such systems in 132 cities in high-, middle- and low-income countries found that 39 per cent did not recover even their operation and maintenance costs. The impact of decreased spending then threatens the sustainability of water systems as lack of reinvestment leads to deterioration of the system and leakages, and the low level of investment in the water sector hampers growth. In rural areas neglect of operation and maintenance budgets and cost recovery contribute to widespread non-functionality. Accessibility and quality are compromised because of limitations on services, lack of expansion and lack of maintenance. Affordability is also affected because funds that would have been available before the financial downturn have been decreased or reallocated, and therefore prices to the user increase to cover the shortfall. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 53 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Water and wastewater management is often entrusted to large and powerful "hydrocracies" that are trained for, and have vested interests in, large infrastructure. Many administrations and funding agencies favour sewer networks and sewage treatment plants over more decentralized systems. Such preferences should be contrasted with the institutional framework for faecal sludge management: often there are no clear institutional responsibilities for wastewater management beyond sewerage networks. This gap is exacerbated in informal settlements that lack legal land tenure, which, where sanitation facilities exist at all, tend to be served largely by septic tanks and pit latrines. Municipalities often deliberately avoid providing formal services in those areas because they fear legitimizing informal settlements. Legislative frameworks must assign institutional responsibilities for wastewater and, more specifically, faecal sludge management. The challenges in informal settlements are among the most urgent. As a short-term solution, non-governmental organizations have acted as intermediaries between municipalities and users to allow people to gain access to services before a more long-term solution is found. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | During her country missions, the Special Rapporteur has constantly witnessed challenges in the operation and management of septic tanks and the disposal of septage, giving rise to severe challenges for the realization of human rights. On site sanitation solutions have been promoted as a way for people to quickly "gain access to sanitation" without giving due regard to what happens when pits fill up. Often, tanks are not properly maintained and pollutants leak into groundwater and environment, impairing the health of neighbouring residents or those depending on shallow aquifers. Once the tanks are full, they need to be emptied. This process of emptying, collection and transportation usually lacks regulation, control and accountability, resulting in contents being dumped by collection trucks relatively close by, into waterways or the larger environment, adjacent to locations where people live, farm, fish or work. Trucks serving a given municipality are often not sufficient to meet the demand. Moreover, poor households, in order to avoid periodically hiring unaffordable trucks, might divert the water overflowing from their tanks leading to continued exposure and health risks. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Information and communication technologies and the sale and sexual exploitation of children 2015, para. 87i | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Special Rapporteur invites all States to:] Establish a reliable and standard information system on the phenomena; | Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism 2013, para. 98f | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Sustainable and effective preventive measures should be established:] Efforts to address the root causes and the risk factors that perpetuate the phenomenon should be strengthened; | Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Although one of the Open Working Group's proposed goals is aimed at reducing inequalities, the Special Rapporteur has observed that human rights norms are almost absent from the proposal (see A/69/297, paras. 45-49). In his synthesis report the Secretary-General attributed far greater importance to them, although he did not explicitly discuss the relationship between inequalities and human rights. The link was however acknowledged in statements calling for a future free from poverty and built on human rights, equality and sustainability, a post-2015 agenda built on the principles of human rights and the rule of law, equality and sustainability, and again in the linking of the challenges of reinforcing human rights, equality and sustainability (see A/69/700, paras. 18, 49 and 82). More generally, the Secretary-General underscored the need to continue to remedy the policy incoherence between current modes of international governance in matters of trade, finance and investment on the one hand, and the norms and standards for labour, the environment, human rights, equality and sustainability on the other (ibid., para. 95). He also acknowledged an indirect link between human rights and inequality by juxtaposing the value of dignity with deepening inequality, thus implying that inequality undermined human dignity. | Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of natural resource exploitation projects 2015, para. 18 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The complexities of influence between the host State and States of origin is replicated among corporations, where parent companies domiciled in one State may have subsidiaries in other countries exercising various degrees of influence on the policies and practices of the latter entities. Furthermore, international and national financial institutions often have a significant stake in natural resource exploitation activities that they may be supporting financially. Their actions or inaction, primarily through the leverage they have as financiers, could have an impact on the human rights of affected communities, including peaceful assembly and association rights. The Special Rapporteur subscribes to the premise that international human rights law ascribes the primary duties to States, acting individually or as members of multilateral institutions. These obligations apply within the territory of the State and extraterritorially. Similarly, non-State actors have responsibilities in relation to human rights, as will be discussed below. | Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Ability of associations to access financial resources as a vital part of the right to freedom of association & Ability to hold peaceful assemblies as an integral component of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly 2013, para. 9 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Legal frameworks and policies related to resources have a significant impact on the freedom of association; they can strengthen the effectiveness and facilitate the sustainability of associations or, alternatively, subjugate associations to a dependent and weak position. Moreover, for associations promoting human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, or those involved in service delivery (such as disaster relief, health-care provision or environmental protection), access to resources is important, not only to the existence of the association itself, but also to the enjoyment of other human rights by those benefitting from the work of the association. Hence, undue restrictions on resources available to associations impact the enjoyment of the right to freedom of association and also undermine civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights as a whole. | Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 108 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Civil society should inform the general public about adverse impact of pesticides on human health and environmental damage, as well as organizing training programmes on agroecology. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | This report focuses on the vertical dimension of scaling up agroecology, namely, the establishment of an enabling framework - although this is both a condition and a driver of horizontal scaling up. Governments have a key role to play in this regard, beyond supporting access to land, water and seeds for small-scale farmers. This section identifies a number of principles that could support the scaling up of agroecological practices. Encouraging a shift towards sustainable agriculture may be a delicate process associated with transition costs, since farmers must learn new techniques that move away from the current systems, which are more specialized, less adaptive, and have a lower innovation capacity. Therefore, the following principles should be applied with flexibility. The incentive structures which such policies create to encourage the shift towards sustainable farming should be regularly tested and re-evaluated with the participation of the beneficiaries, transforming policy into a mode of "social learning rather than an exercise of political authority." The move towards agroecology should be based on the farmers themselves - its main beneficiaries. Agroecological techniques are best spread from farmer to farmer, since they are often specific to an agroecological zone. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 78 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Subsequent to a project’s completion, it is essential to systematically produce ex post human rights assessments of projects. Such assessments are critical to identifying the sustainability of services and understanding a project’s medium- and long-term impacts on human rights and the causes of those impacts. Critically, assessments should be made available to the public in order for the relevant authorities to be held accountable. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 57 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Furthermore, often forgotten in development projects are the safe management of on-site sanitation and faecal sludge, hygiene promotion and menstrual hygiene management. In the projects assessed, it was observed that hygiene management is often absent, particularly menstrual hygiene management, under the pretext that it is “culturally” difficult to address. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 29 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Another overarching policy for development cooperation is established in the Japan International Cooperation Agency guidelines for environmental and social considerations. The guidelines specify that the principles of local stakeholder participation, accountability, transparency and access to information are indispensable for decision-making processes, in addition to respect for human rights. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
The Special Rapporteur's vision of the mandate 2017, para. 37 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In his fourth report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/29/25), on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association in the context of natural resource exploitation, the previous mandate holder examined the role that those rights played in opening up space for genuine and effective participation across the spectrum of natural resource exploitation activities. He also examined how those rights helped to foster increased transparency and accountability, facilitate constructive dialogue and, ultimately, form the basis for people’s ability to secure other substantive rights. In the report, he noted that the significance of civil society as a stakeholder in the context of natural resource exploitation was underestimated, misperceived and often denied by both States and businesses and that that was symptomatic of a growing disregard for a plurality of views, particularly those which championed non-economic values over economic ones. He argued that such disregard for civil society input was counterproductive and divisive and likely to contribute to an erosion of confidence in the world’s prevailing economic system. He concluded that it was in the interest of both States and corporations to recognize actions by civil society groups, both in support of and against the entire decision-making chain in natural resource governance, as a legitimate exercise by those individuals and groups of their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. | Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 90f | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [In addition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that regulatory actors:] Ensure that tariff-setting reconciles financial sustainability with affordability, while prioritizing and protecting the needs of those living in poverty; | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
The human rights of migrants on a 2035 agenda for facilitating human mobility 2017, para. Target 3.10. | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Ensure respect for human rights at border controls, including return, readmission and post-return monitoring, and establish accountability mechanisms]
Systematically implement post-return human rights monitoring and ensure that such monitoring is part of every readmission agreement | Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
The role of digital access providers 2017, para. 27 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Zero rating arrangements may provide users with limited Internet access in areas that would otherwise completely lack access. However, broader Internet access may still remain out of reach for users, trapping them in permanently walled online gardens. The assumption that limited access will eventually ripen into full connectivity requires further study. It may be dependent upon factors such as user behaviour, market conditions, the human rights landscape and the regulatory environment. | Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Diversity in humanity, humanity in diversity 2017, para. 51 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Various elements interrelate closely with the root causes and environment behind the violence and discrimination. On that matter, the underpinnings outlined in the following paragraphs will be dealt with progressively by the Independent Expert as part of a workplan and mapping exercise, in the coming years. They are discussed succinctly in the present report, as a precursor to other more detailed reports that will follow in the future. | Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 51 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The process of incorporating the human rights to water and sanitation in development cooperation has not been a straightforward, consensual or expeditious process. International events have provided opportunities for governmental bodies to make various human rights-related commitments. One clear example of this is the Accra Agenda for Action of 2008, agreed to by developed and developing countries, in which it was indicated that developing countries and donors would ensure that their respective development policies and programmes were designed and implemented in ways consistent with their agreed international commitments on gender equality, human rights, disability and environmental sustainability. More recently, the Ministerial Declaration of the Sixth World Water Forum (2012), adopted by representatives of 145 countries, demonstrated a true international consensus on the right to water and sanitation and the commitment by Governments to accelerating access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation in line with United Nations resolutions. In the Ministerial Declaration of the Seventh World Water Forum (2015), signatories indicated their engagement to translate commitments into national policies, plans and actions and to intensify joint efforts to advance water-related cooperation on a global scale, as well as their commitments to the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation and to ensuring progressive access to water and sanitation for all. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 49 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The main frameworks for development cooperation in water and sanitation have been set by various meetings and policy documents, including the report of the International Conference on Water and the Environment, held in Dublin in January 1992, and the Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 11 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | More specifically with respect to the human right to water, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explained that States parties are obligated to respect the enjoyment of that right in other countries, to refrain from actions that interfere with the enjoyment of the right to water in other countries and to prevent their own citizens and companies from violating the right to water of individuals and communities in other countries. In addition, the Committee indicated that States should facilitate realization of the right to water in other countries, for example through provision of water resources, financial and technical assistance and necessary aid when required, in a manner that is consistent with the Covenant and other human rights standards and that is sustainable and culturally appropriate. The economically developed States have a special responsibility and interest to assist the poorer developing States in that regard. The Committee also elaborated on the responsibility of States through multilateral organizations, indicating that State parties that are members of international financial institutions, notably the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and regional development banks, should take steps to ensure that the right to water is taken into account in their lending policies, credit agreements and other international measures (see E/C.12/2002/11, paras. 33, 34 and 36). | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 54i | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Where States adopt targeted measures, this also poses challenges. In practice, unfortunately, such measures often fail to reach the target population for a variety of reasons, including:] In many instances, subsidies for water are targeted towards commercial or industrial users. Where such subsidies benefit users that do not actually rely on them for their livelihoods, they should be eliminated or reduced to free up resources for the benefit of the population in need. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 99h | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Balance short-, medium- and long-term needs and address these through comprehensive planning. This implies not deferring immediate needs with promises of a long-term strategy that will eventually reach the entire population. Immediate needs must be addressed as a matter of priority, while minimizing the cost of any potential double investment in infrastructure; | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 |