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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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Women, the girl child and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome 2001, para. 3a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Actions to be taken by Governments, the United Nations system and civil society, as appropriate]: Request Governments to ensure universal and equal access for women and men throughout their life cycle to social services related to health care, including education, clean water and safe sanitation, nutrition, food security and health education programmes, especially for women and girls living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, including treatment for opportunistic diseases; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2001 | ||
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.1.c | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.1. Poverty] (c) Improve the situation of girl children living in poverty, deprived of nutrition, water and sanitation facilities, with no access to basic health-care services, shelter, education, participation and protection, taking into account that while a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human being, it is most threatening and harmful to the girl child, leaving her unable to enjoy her rights, to reach her full potential and to participate as a full member of society; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2007 | ||
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.2.l | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.2. Education and training] (l) Increase girls' ability to attend school and extra-curricular activities by investing in public infrastructure projects and quality public services, such as transport, water, sanitation and sustainable energy, in order to reduce the amount of time girls spend on everyday routine household maintenance tasks, while also working to change attitudes that reinforce the division of labour based on gender, in order to promote shared family responsibility for work in the home and reduce the domestic work burden for girls; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2007 | ||
Access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work 2011, para. 22r | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions, as appropriate:] [Expanding access and participation in education]: Improve the safety of girls at and on the way to school, including, inter alia, by improving infrastructure such as transportation, providing separate and adequate sanitation facilities, improved lighting, playgrounds and safe environments, conducting violence prevention activities in schools and communities and establishing and enforcing penalties for all forms of harassment and violence against girls; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2011 | ||
Access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work 2011, para. 22pp | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions, as appropriate:] [Making science and technology responsive to women's needs]: Utilize the full potential of science and technology, including in engineering and mathematics, and their innovations to deliver improvements in infrastructure and sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, nutrition, health, water and sanitation and information and communications technology, in order, inter alia, to eradicate poverty, promote social development and achieve women's economic empowerment; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2011 | ||
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 42j | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Realizing women's and girls' full enjoyment of all human rights]: Enact and implement legislation to protect, support and empower child-headed households, in particular those headed by girls, and include provisions to ensure their economic well-being and access to health-care services, nutrition, safe drinking water and sanitation, shelter, education and inheritance, and ensure that these families are protected, supported and assisted to stay together; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2014 | ||
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 42dd | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Realizing women's and girls' full enjoyment of all human rights]: Ensure non-discriminatory access for women of all ages to gender-responsive, universally accessible, available, affordable, sustainable and high-quality services and infrastructure, including health care, safe drinking water and sanitation, transport, energy, housing, agricultural technology, financial and legal services, and information and communications technologies; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2014 | ||
Women's empowerment and the link to sustainable development 2016, para. 23k | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Commission [...] urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Strengthening normative, legal and policy frameworks]: Urges governments to provide universal and equitable access for all to safe and affordable drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene, in particular in schools, public facilities and buildings, paying special attention to the specific needs of all women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by inadequate water and sanitation facilities, are at greater risk of violence and harassment when practising open defecation and have specific needs for menstrual hygiene management, and to improve water management and wastewater treatment with the active participation of women; | Commission on the Status of Women | CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration |
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| 2016 | ||
Refugee Women and International Protection 1990, para. (a) ix | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Urges States, relevant United Nations organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations, as appropriate, to ensure that the needs and resources of refugee women are fully understood and integrated, to the extent possible, into their activities and programmes and, to this end, to pursue, among others, the following aims in promoting measures for improving the international protection of refugee women:] Provide all refugee women and girls with effective and equitable access to basic services, including food, water and relief supplies, health and sanitation, education and skills training, and make wage-earning opportunities available to them; | Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | ExCom Conclusion |
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| 1990 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 82 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Rural women and girls are among those most affected by water scarcity; a situation that is aggravated by unequal access to natural resources and the lack of infrastructure and services. Rural women and girls are frequently obliged to walk long distances to fetch water, sometimes exposing them to a heightened risk of sexual violence and attacks. Owing to poor rural infrastructure and services in many regions, rural women often spend four to five hours per day (or more) collecting water from sometimes poor-quality sources, carrying heavy containers and suffering acute physical problems, as well as facing illnesses caused by the use of unsafe water. Various forms of low-cost and effective technology exist that could ease the burden, including well-drilling technology, water extraction systems, wastewater reuse technology, labour-saving irrigation technology, rain-harvesting and household water treatment and purification systems. | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 39e | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [States parties should safeguard the right of rural women and girls to adequate health care, and ensure:] That rural health-care facilities have adequate water and sanitation services; | Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | General Comment / Recommendation |
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| 2016 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Most countries only track enrolment and not completion rates, yet enrolment is an inherently flawed measure of girls' access to education. Attendance is a better measure, as girls' attendance may be cut short due to domestic responsibilities such as cooking, fetching water and firewood, and childcare; lack of adequate sanitation in schools to meet the needs of menstruating girls; early marriage or pregnancy; and gender-based violence and harassment, including in schools. In situations of economic contraction, as households cope with declining household income, girls are more vulnerable to being pulled out of school, with girls experiencing a 29 per cent decrease in primary school completion rates versus 22 per cent for boys. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 68 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Menstruation is surrounded by stigma, resulting in the ostracism of and discrimination against women and girls. In some cultures menstruating women and girls are considered to be contaminated and impure and restrictions and interdictions during menstruation are imposed on them. Women and girls may continue to harbour internalized stigma and are embarrassed to discuss menstruation even where there are no restrictions. They live with a lack of privacy for cleaning and washing, a fear of staining and smelling and a lack of hygiene in school toilets or separate sanitation facilities. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Various programmes have proven to be effective in removing some of these obstacles. Bangladesh launched the Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) in 1993; ten years later, as it entered its second phase, the project covered one quarter of rural Bangladesh and now benefits almost one million girls across the country in more than 6,000 schools. FSSAP provides a stipend to girls who agree to delay marriage until they complete secondary education, for a total cost to the programme of about US$121 per year per person; and it has improved sanitation facilities in schools. It has spectacularly succeeded in improving girls' school attendance rates. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 18 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | School-feeding programmes can also make a significant contribution to improving access to education for girls, with impacts ranging from 19 to 38 per cent in increased female school attendance, according to certain cross-country studies. The provision of take-home rations to pupils can be particularly effective in this respect, especially where markets are unreliable or prices of essential food commodities highly volatile, or where the capacity of the schools to provide meals is limited. In Pakistan, the provision of take-home rations to girls attending school for at least 20 days a month made overall enrolment grow by 135 percent from 1998-99 to 2003-04. In Afghanistan, school enrolment has increased significantly since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, though - due to cultural norms, lack of sanitation facilities and the security situation - the enrolment of girls in schools as compared to boys remains very low (at 0.35 in 2008). WFP seeks to bridge this gap by distributing a monthly ration of 3.7 litres of vegetable oil to girls, conditional upon a minimum school attendance of 22 days per month. In Malawi, the introduction into the school-feeding programme of take-home rations of 12.5 kg of maize per month for girls and double orphans attending at least 80 per cent of school days led to a 37.7 per cent increase in girls' enrolment. In Lao People's Democratic Republic, where girls' enrolment can be very low, particularly in rural areas and within some ethnic groups, pupils receive a take-home family ration of canned fish, rice and iodized salt as an incentive for parents to send them to school. From 2002 to 2008, enrolment rates in primary schools benefiting from the programme increased from 60 percent to 88 percent for boys and from 53 percent to 84 percent for girls. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 60 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also acknowledges the critical importance of advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls to realize sustainable development. Many of the climate-related SDGs include gender-specific targets, including those related to ownership and control over land and access to new technology (SDG1), women small-scale food producers (SDG2), and water and sanitation (SDG6). These goals provide a mandate for advancing gender equality and women's empowerment across all areas of climate change action. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 66 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In rural areas, women and girls spend the majority of their time engaged in subsistence farming and in the collection of water and fuel. As a result of flooding, droughts, fires and mudslides, these tasks become more difficult. Water shortages and depletion of forests require women and girls to walk longer distances to collect water and wood. In Senegal and Mozambique, women spend 17.5 and 15.3 hours respectively each week collecting water. In Nepal, girls spend an average of five hours per week on this task. In rural Africa and India, 30 percent of women's daily energy intake is spent in carrying water. Depletion of land and water resources may place additional burdens on women's labour and health as they struggle to make their livelihoods in a changing environment. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 42 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Water points and sanitation facilities must be made available and accessible to women, ensuring women's rights to water and sanitation, as well as to health. In order to ensure that women's needs are adequately reflected in housing law, policy, and programming, a human rights-based approach requires that women be able to participate in all stages of policy and programme development, so that they are able to give input into the kinds of resources most needed by them within their specific social and cultural context. For example, the recent Inter-Agency Standing Committee guidelines on addressing gender issues in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake of January 2010 highlighted that "it is essential that water and sanitation actors consult women and girls on the location of sanitation facilities to ensure that the route is safe; that latrines be well lit, lockable from the inside, and offer privacy." | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Priorities for the work of the Independent Expert and the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities 2012, para. 76 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Sex- and minority-based discrimination in hiring, promotion and pay also create significant barriers for minority women. Increasingly informal labour markets - a result of globalization - have brought more women into paid work, but often with low pay, excluded from basic labour protection and employed under poor working conditions. This renders the conditions under which minority women - and all too often young girls - earn incomes that may be insecure, difficult, harmful or even dangerous. Their workload can be made heavier by the lack of such basic amenities as clean water and sanitation, the availability of child-care support and protection against domestic and social violence. Minority girls and women in difficult circumstances are often forced to find survival opportunities outside their communities and home, and can easily fall victim to trafficking, exploitation and illegal migration within or outside their own country, which makes them even more vulnerable. | Special Rapporteur on minority issues | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Moreover, international human rights instruments not only call for disaggregation between urban and rural areas, but also for assessments of discrimination on grounds of sex, race (including social, national and ethnic origin), disability and political and religious belief, among others. In terms of target 7.C specifically, groups that have been identified as potentially vulnerable or marginalized include women, children, inhabitants of rural and deprived urban areas as well as other poor people, nomadic and traveller communities, refugees, migrants, people belonging to ethnic or racial minorities, elderly people, indigenous groups, persons living with disabilities, people living in water-scarce regions and persons living with HIV/AIDS. Women and girls, in particular, benefit from improved access to water and sanitation as they are frequently responsible for ensuring the provision of water, often at personal risk of physical or sexual assault, and equally when forced to defecate in the open. The human rights framework helps to ensure that the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups are not overlooked in the quest for aggregate progress. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 27 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Access to water and sanitation is not only a human rights entitlement but it also has an enormous impact on human health: it is central to the reduction of child mortality, malnutrition, neglected tropical diseases, opportunistic diseases for people living with HIV/AIDS, and a number of other health conditions. It contributes to ensuring gender equality, inter alia, by reducing the time spent by girls and women in collecting and managing household water. As such, access to water and sanitation also impacts on education, both through freeing children's time to attend school and through improving health. Moreover, improving access to water and sanitation reduces the burden of inadequate menstrual hygiene management. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In her country missions, the Special Rapporteur has noted that specific groups are excluded from access to water and sanitation, often reflecting patterns of discrimination, marginalization and limited political will to ensure substantive equality. These groups can be identified along ethnicity and socioeconomic divides. In some countries, indigenous peoples living on reserves do not have access to water or sanitation services. Dalits often suffer discrimination in accessing water and sanitation, while Roma are most disadvantaged in many European countries. Moreover, the Special Rapporteur's attention has repeatedly been drawn to vast gender inequalities and multiple discrimination, or the compounded impact of various grounds of discrimination on the same individual or group. For instance, women and girls are overwhelmingly tasked with collecting water and are physically and sexually threatened when they fetch water. Persons with disabilities are also disproportionately represented among those who lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 67 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Evidence shows that women and girls, older people, people with chronic illnesses and persons with disabilities often face particular barriers in accessing water and sanitation, and that these barriers are experienced both within the household and when accessing community and public facilities. Global monitoring data have demonstrated that women and girls shoulder the burden of collecting household water, restricting their time for other activities, including education and work. Moreover, when households share sanitation facilities, women and girls may be required by social norms concerning privacy to avoid using the facilities except during hours of darkness, when their personal safety may be at increased risk. When sanitation and water facilities are not designed with them in mind, older persons and those with physical access constraints, including disabilities may face obstacles to accessing and using these facilities. Such discrimination based on sex/gender, age, disability, and health status occurs across the globe and in all strata of society. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 73 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | One particular area where individual inequalities and the lack of attention to the needs of women and girls is starkly apparent is menstrual hygiene management. Menstruation is a taboo topic. In this context, women and girls are forced into furtive practices and obliged to hide their hygiene practices and limit their movements during menstruation. Although there is a dearth of research in this area, several studies demonstrate that adolescent girls often face significant restrictions during and associated with their menses. Girls may be taken out of school or workplaces or choose not to attend because there are no facilities for hygienically managing menstruation in sanitation facilities. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2012, para. 22 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Stigmatization often results in lack of access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene standards. The lack of access to essential services is a symptom, while the root causes lie in stigmatization. Only through an understanding of these causes will it be possible to implement effective measures to improve access to services. Stigma is often closely linked to perceptions of uncleanliness, untouchability and contagion. In many instances, stigmatized people are perceived as "dirty", "filthy" and "smelly", affecting for instance homeless populations, menstruating women and girls, Roma communities, Dalits or women suffering from obstetric fistula. Individuals who find themselves stigmatized because of the perception that they are "dirty" or "contagious" may be socially ostracized and be denied access to water, sanitation and hygiene services, hence reinforcing the stereotype of uncleanliness and prolonging a vicious circle. It is not their inherent condition to live in filthy and poor conditions; it is a position imposed by society that uses stigma as a tool to create, perpetuate and justify marginalization and inequality. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 50 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | What emerges from the above is a pattern of neglect of the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society across planning, institutional responsibilities and resource allocation. Disadvantaged groups can often be identified along ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic divides (see, for example, A/HRC/18/33/Add.4, para. 79). Indigenous peoples, Dalits and Roma are among such groups facing discrimination with whom the Special Rapporteur has met during the course of her mandate. Moreover, there are vast gender inequalities - in many poor communities, the task of collecting water overwhelmingly falls to women and girls (see, for example, A/HRC/15/31/Add.3 and Corr.1, para. 22). Persons with disabilities are also disproportionately represented among those lacking access to water and sanitation (A/HRC/15/55, para. 21). Neglect can occur for a variety of reasons: groups and individuals may experience stigmatization, they may live in remote areas making serving them costly, or politicians may be indifferent to their needs. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Participation in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 20 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In some instances, empowered participatory governance has been successful, i.e., people have effectively mobilized to influence policy-making. For example, communities in California successfully mobilized, leading to the adoption of Assembly Bill 685, the California Human Right to Water Bill. Communities in California's Central Valley formed a coalition of NGOs, the Safe Water Alliance, and successfully engaged legislators to act on their behalf. In the Rupnagar slum in Bangladesh, a girls' club encourages neighbours to follow safe menstrual hygiene practices. The club members produce sanitary napkins and go door to door to promote hygienic behaviour (see A/HRC/15/55 and Corr.1, para. 69); they also negotiated for and obtained a legal water connection. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Participation in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 45 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | An assessment of barriers must address all types of obstacles: physical, economic, institutional, attitudinal and social. Physical barriers affect persons with disabilities, but they also relate to decisions on meeting times and childcare. Social barriers include prejudices and stereotypes. Gender norms and stereotypes play a significant role in determining what degree of control men and women exercise. In many instances, social norms legitimize women's exclusion from decision-making. Social norms explain, for instance, why authorities fail to take seriously reports of women being subjected to indignities and risks of sexual violence when accessing sanitation facilities outside their home. As the Special Rapporteur has noted elsewhere, taboos around menstruation, combined with inadequate access to water and sanitation, explain why a significant number of girls consistently lose a week of schooling each month (A/HRC/21/42, para. 22). Without a deliberate effort to draw out their own analysis and ideas, solutions will often fail to address women's and girls' needs. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Participation in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 46 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | With regard to water management, principle No. 3 of the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, adopted by the International Conference on Water and the Environment in 1992, acknowledges that "[w]omen play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.... [I]mplementation of this principle requires positive policies … to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resources programmes, including decision-making and implementation". While women's participation is essential, care must be taken to avoid reinforcing existing stereotypes about women and girls being solely responsible for water management, which in many instances implies water collection. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 52 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Indian Supreme Court ordered schools to provide adequate toilet facilities in schools. Relying on empirical research showing that "parents do not send their children (particularly girls) to schools" wherever sanitation facilities are not provided, the Court found that a lack of toilets violated the right to education. Failure to provide water and sanitation to those deprived of liberty has been addressed by courts and international bodies primarily as constituting cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The High Court of Fiji held that prisoners' right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment was violated by lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities. The Human Rights Committee has found human rights violations, as have regional human rights bodies, in a number of cases in which prisoners have been denied access to sanitation. | Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 |