A/67/270 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted to the General Assembly by the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 16/2, in which the Council encouraged her to report annually to the General Assembly. 2. In her report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session (A/65/254), the Special Rapporteur provided an analysis on how the human right to water and sanitation can enable a comprehensive and sustainable achievement of target 7.C of the Millennium Development Goals. This target was set to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The report examined how human rights can address a number of blind spots of the Millennium Development Goals, notably their silence regarding non-discrimination and equality. It offered recommendations on how a human rights framework can bring specific attention to the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups, ensure universal access, promote intersectoral approaches and strengthen participation and accountability. 3. The discussion on the post-2015 development agenda presents an unprecedented opportunity to take this critical analysis a step further and to provide concrete recommendations for the future development framework. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur argues that this agenda cannot advance without integrating equality and non-discrimination. The current report emphasizes the importance of proposing goals, targets and indicators that explicitly encompass these dimensions, based on the human rights framework which entails legally binding obligations for all States Members of the United Nations. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that the human right to water and sanitation serves as an exemplary illustration of the importance of these principles in any future human development agenda. 4. Furthermore, she argues that the human right to water and sanitation should be integrated in the goals, targets, indicators and monitoring mechanisms for the post-2015 development framework. She calls for a development agenda that purposely aims at reducing gaps between the “haves” and “have-nots”, while also focusing on the most economically and socially deprived and marginalized members of society. 5. The world has changed significantly since the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. The global crises in food, finance, economy and the environment have generated considerable concern within development circles. Climate change has an enormous impact on environmental sustainability and the lives of billions, 1 and in combination with population growth, ageing and increased urbanization, places particular stress on current and future access to water and sanitation. In fact, the growth of global water demand is already outpacing population growth. 6. Growing inequalities across and within regions and countries are increasingly signalled to counter some of the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. Some States have become more aware of the high social cost of inequalities, resulting in disillusionment — in particular among youth — instability and violence. __________________ 1 12-45653 See Tony Addison and others, “The triple crisis and the global aid architecture”, African Development Review, vol. 23, No. 4 (December 2011). 3