A/HRC/RES/16/2
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
8 April 2011
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Sixteenth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council*
16/2
The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming all previous resolutions of the Human Rights Council on human rights
and access to safe drinking water and sanitation, inter alia, resolutions 7/22 of 28 March
2008, 12/8 of 1 October 2009 and 15/9 of 30 September 2010,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 64/292 of 28 July 2010, in which the
Assembly recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human
right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights,
Recalling also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities,
Recalling further relevant provisions of declarations and programmes with regard to
access to safe drinking water and sanitation adopted by major United Nations conferences
and summits, and by the General Assembly at its special sessions and during follow-up
meetings, inter alia, the Mar del Plata Action Plan on Water Development and
Administration, adopted at the United Nations Water Conference in March 1977, Agenda
21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, and the Habitat
Agenda, adopted at the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in June
1996, Assembly resolutions 54/175 of 17 December 1999 on the right to development, and
* The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of
the Council on its sixteenth session (A/HRC/16/2), chap. I.
GE.11-12485