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Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Achieving behavioural change in beneficiaries and institutions and creating awareness on safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services are fundamental to ensuring transformative development and sustainable water and sanitation projects. Yet efforts to achieve those objectives are seriously limited by time-based constraints that are common in development cooperation projects. The usual time frame for the full cycle of project implementation is from three to five years at most. A combination of several factors make such time frames too short to guarantee effective capacity-strengthening and lasting behavioural change. Ensuring the continuity of measures initially funded through development cooperation, especially those related to project management, may be a determinant in guaranteeing projects’ medium- to long-term sustainability. Several projects assessed revealed that funding was allocated to deploy local activists or community workers tasked with raising awareness on hygiene and encouraging local participation in user associations. However, those projects did not contain conditions or mechanisms that would ensure continuous support for those functions after the project terminated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The instruments delegating service provision, including contracts, must reflect the national regulatory framework and human rights standards. This means that these instruments should include a clear definition of the human rights responsibilities of service providers, coverage targets to eliminate inequalities in access, sufficient provision for participation, access to information and mechanisms for accountability. While ensuring this, non-State service providers are also expected to respect human rights. To that end, they must exercise due diligence to become aware of and address any potential impact on the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, including by analysing the proposed delegating instruments from a human rights perspective (see A/HRC/15/31, para. 38), and where appropriate by undertaking human rights impact assessments. The General Assembly has recently called upon non-State actors, including business enterprises, to comply with their responsibility to respect the human rights to water and sanitation, including by cooperating with State investigations into allegations of abuses of these rights, and by progressively engaging with States to detect and remedy such abuses (see General Assembly resolution 70/169, para. 6).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- In line with international human rights law, States should therefore use an "intersectionality lens" in all policy initiatives, to ensure that special attention is given to those persons most disadvantaged in the enjoyment of their rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Owing to a lack of expertise or the use of inappropriate technology, water and sanitation infrastructure provided through development cooperation may not be well-maintained or well-operated, making it necessary to provide further funding for education and training. Capacity-building is key to ensuring the sustainability of investments and a human rights-based approach should be adopted in this respect. Doing so would involve the main stakeholders directly and indirectly concerned in the adequate provision of services and strengthening their ability to perform tasks and produce outputs, collectively define and solve problems and make informed choices. Other forms of cooperation, such as public-public partnerships, which are absent from the policies of most international funders, can respond effectively to that need. In that context, it is noteworthy that a petition to the European Commission with 1.9 million signatures that was ultimately endorsed by the European Parliament called for the adoption of a human rights approach to development cooperation based on not-for-profit principles and solidarity among water operators and authorities, including capacity-building partnerships aimed at improving the quality of water services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Nevertheless, the overall global increase in funding to the sector masks significant annual variations in disbursed funds and funding modalities. Regarding funding commitments, for the 2010-2012 period, 41 per cent of aid commitments were grants and 59 per cent were concessional loans. In addition, critical reviews of development cooperation flows indicate that the available data on those flows may be fragmented at best. That could be due in part to a lack of collaboration between funders to provide consolidated, reliable, accurate and disaggregated data. Regarding disaggregation, the majority of development projects registered in the relevant database of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), accounting for more than half of the amount of funds dedicated to the sector, do not clearly indicate, for example, whether rural or urban areas have been targeted. Considering the markedly lower levels of access to adequate water and sanitation services in rural areas compared with urban areas, that information gap indicates a need for improved reporting by Member States. Another noteworthy source of data inaccuracy is the non-inclusion of important interventions in informal settlements because those are considered to be part of so-called "slum/squatter upgrading".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Participatory budgeting is increasingly common in municipalities across the world, enabling residents to agree on the budget priorities of local government. Such processes have often contributed to improving basic service provision, including water and sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- While courts in many jurisdictions are amenable to litigation challenging human rights violations, access to justice should not generally rely on litigation. States must ensure that water and sanitation services are provided within a context of clear rules. They must adopt measures to prevent human rights violations, for instance through carrying out human rights impact assessments. Where violations are being alleged, dispute and complaint mechanisms should be available with the aim of resolving issues quickly and efficiently. Where human rights violations are not adequately addressed, individuals must be able to proceed to court. Being able to turn to the courts - as a last resort - is an essential component of ensuring access to justice. Violations of the rights to water and sanitation have generally been dealt with more effectively in States where constitutional and legislative protections guarantee that those rights are directly or indirectly justiciable. In States where this is not yet the case, courts and governments should be guided by international developments and recognize the rights to water and sanitation as justiciable. Governments should promote the use of international law in interpreting domestic law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 2014, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 15 (2003) on the right to water, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights builds on a comprehensive understanding of violations, applying the categories of human rights obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to water. While the Committee has not yet adopted a general comment on the right to sanitation, it has issued a formal statement recognizing that similar obligations apply, following an approach taken by the Special Rapporteur in her 2009 report to the Council. The present report applies this framework and develops a typology of common violations of the rights to water and sanitation. In addition to the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil, it puts a particular emphasis on equality and non-discrimination, as well as on participation, and also examines extraterritorial obligations. The latter obligations cut across the "respect, protect, fulfil" framework. This typology is not proposed as a rigid classification, being utilized as a framework for surveying the range of violations which must be addressed, with inevitable overlaps in the categories. What is most important is to ensure that no type of violation is ignored and that no victim is denied access to effective remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- While many caution that future targets and indicators need to be measurable, and this is certainly true, there is also a tendency to hide behind this technical argument. Others have noted that measurability is an inappropriate standard for political decisions on deprioritizing certain issues, and that data should "be seen as a servant, rather than a master". The current lack of data should not be used as an argument against future monitoring. Rather, the Special Rapporteur calls for data to be collected on certain issues precisely to bring them to light. The current lack of data on certain issues is not accidental. Neglect often coincides with a low political profile. For example, in many countries, people living in informal settlements do not appear in the official statistics, even when they represent a high percentage of the population in major cities. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur calls for pushing the boundaries of what is currently perceived as measurable. A commitment to better and more accurate data collection as part of the global framework is essential to identifying and monitoring inequalities, a crucial step to making progress to end them.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The Millennium Development Goals were never intended as national goals; however, they have often been translated as such. Their impact on national policymaking and monitoring is undeniable. Monitoring at the national and global levels has distinct purposes, ideally complementary ones. While national-level monitoring serves for national policymaking, planning and financing, global monitoring speaks to the interest of the international community to determine whether progress on international agreed goals has been reached. It is more focused on identifying broad trends and recurrent themes across the globe - serving to put certain issues on the agenda and providing a platform for advocacy. Global monitoring also adds the element of comparability, hence setting incentives for States to make the same or better progress as neighbouring countries or States in a similar position. Despite these distinct monitoring purposes, the impact of the global framework in influencing national priorities cannot be underestimated. Issues that do not receive attention at the global level also tend to be disregarded in national policymaking.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Planning for the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2011, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to fulfil economic, social and cultural rights requires taking steps to the maximum of available resources. There has been much recent scholarship and a number of tools have been developed on assessing whether States are deploying the maximum of available resources towards guaranteeing human rights. One approach is to compare current budget allocations to past efforts to evaluate whether efforts have progressed, stagnated or regressed. A decrease would prima facie raise concerns. If past allocations to the sectors are evidently insufficient, a slight incremental increase based on yearly adjustments may not be sufficient, and a reallocation of funds would need to be considered. Another approach is a comparison between similarly situated countries. Such tools are not meant to provide definite answers on the use of maximum available resources, but can be used to prompt further inquiries. A decrease in the budget could be justified, for instance, when resources are used more efficiently and allocated to the most vulnerable and marginalized, or when economic conditions change, as long as the decrease is based on the most careful consideration and can be justified by reference to the totality of rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financing for the Realization of the Rights to Water and Sanitation 2011, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Fragmentation often occurs horizontally between institutions when sectoral aid is managed by a variety of government ministries; for instance, one regulatory agency may be in charge of managing tariffs, while another monitors water quality. In such cases, fragmentation is not always particularly inefficient, nor does it pose a serious threat to resource tracking. It becomes a problem, however, when multiple institutions are charged with similar responsibilities, or when one institution is responsible for articulating policy while another controls the purse strings. Horizontal fragmentation also plagues donors at the international level. When negotiating aid packages, for instance, individual donors often seek out personalized, extrabudgetary arrangements with Governments. These agreements may undermine a State's ability to account for all available resources when developing strategies for the sector. The Special Rapporteur has expressed concern about the problems caused by horizontal fragmentation in the reports on her missions to Costa Rica and Egypt (A/HRC/12/24/Add.1 and Corr.1, para. 61, and A/HRC/15/31/Add.3 and Corr.1, para. 13) but discussions with many experts indicate that they are systemic in the water and sanitation sectors around the world.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human Rights Obligations Related to Non-State Service Provision in Water and Sanitation 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- These challenges can be encountered at various stages of engagement with non-State service providers. Human rights have to be protected before and throughout the process, requiring a constant assessment, both by States and service providers, of whether the measures taken contribute to the realization of human rights. In the present section, both State obligations and the responsibilities of non-State actors will be addressed in relation to the challenges encountered. Starting with the decision to delegate service provision, the independent expert highlights questions regarding participatory and transparent processes, instruments for delegation and human rights impact assessments. She specifically addresses provision of services to previously unserved and underserved areas. In the operation of services, it is observed that regulation is essential, but often not sufficient to meet the standards of the human rights to water and sanitation and must be complemented by social policies. That section also raises issues regarding institutional capacity and the regulation of informal small-scale providers. Finally, the last section turns to questions of accountability and enforcement.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human Rights Obligations Related to Non-State Service Provision in Water and Sanitation 2010, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Private sector participation is commonly used to refer to a broad spectrum of contractual arrangements between governments and the private sector that involve private companies in varying degrees in the provision of water and sanitation services. They differ according to the ownership of assets, the responsibility for capital investments, the allocation of risks, the responsibility for operations and maintenance, and the typical contract duration. For instance, while the model of concessions confers the management, risk and responsibility for investment on the private sector, private sector participation can also be limited to contracting out some aspects of management or service provision. In many cases, the system cannot be designated as exclusively public or private but instead takes on a hybrid nature, also in the form of joint ventures. The oft-used term "privatization" obscures the fact that full-scale privatization, that is, divestiture including the transfer of assets, is a rare exception rather than the norm. To avoid imprecision and confusion, the independent expert will not use the term, but will rather mention private sector participation when referring specifically to the private sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human Rights Obligations Related to Non-State Service Provision in Water and Sanitation 2010, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- In exercising due diligence, non-State service providers have to take into account a variety of factors. They must consider the country and local context where their activities are carried out - such as the institutional capacities of the Government - aiming to identify the specific human rights challenges. A second set of factors turns to the actual and potential impact of their activities. Finally, a third set relates to whether they might contribute to human rights abuses through their relationships with other actors (A/HRC/8/5, para. 57). Thus, the responsibility to respect not only requires service providers to ensure that their own action does not result in human rights abuses, but also includes the avoidance of complicity, which means that they must avoid being indirectly involved in human rights abuses committed by other actors, including the State (para. 73). The concept of due diligence requires contextualization and is sufficiently flexible to determine what is required from non-State providers operating in different contexts. The necessary actions required in the exercise of due diligence will depend on the scale, nature and sectoral and operational specificities of the actor in question.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Unlike the situation in some other sectors, there is no platform to hold donor and partner countries accountable for their commitments. Aid coordination remains fragmented and incoherent. The design of aid and cooperation policies should be guided by human rights standards. Moreover, there is a need for improved political prioritization, aid effectiveness and targeting of funding to where it is most needed. The "Sanitation and Water for All" initiative is a relatively new international partnership of national Governments, donors, civil society organizations and other partners working to address this challenge and galvanize political commitment to increase access to water and sanitation. This initiative provides capacity-building support for strong national processes with improved data and analysis on the sanitation and water supply sectors for decision-making, mutual accountability among aid agencies and partner Governments (and among Governments and their people) and better targeting and mobilization of funding. It aims to mobilize catalytic funding and provide specific technical assistance to the most off-track countries. To meet this objective, donor commitments to support the implementation of actionable plans will be crucial.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- Some funders (IADB, UNICEF and the World Bank) use output frameworks as a primary tool to evaluate their performance and the achievement of particular projects’ goals. Others (France, IADB, Japan and UNICEF) incorporate wide-scale quantitative targets into their worldwide and/or country strategies (for example, the number of people to be reached with new or improved access to drinking water and sanitation).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- In some projects assessed, especially those targeting rural areas, the level of the technological solution is not intrinsically problematic. However, the lack of a plan to manage or, when necessary, upgrade those solutions in the future risks jeopardizing their long-term ability to comply with human rights requirements. It is essential for funders and partner States to have a vision of how those projects will be managed in the long term in order to provide sustainable services that deter retrogressions in the realization of human rights. This must be done with consideration of specific contexts and should involve adequate planning measures. When more than one intervention is required to provide an acceptable level of service to a community, it is essential for the intermediate levels of service to be as safe as possible and to facilitate scaling up with the least amount of financial losses and in the most sustainable fashion possible. Indeed, decisions related to project planning must take great care to avoid investments that fully replace previous services in the same location instead of upgrading those solutions. Otherwise, such investments risk representing an irresponsible use of public funds and a possible compromise of other human rights (A/70/203, para. 88).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Through the first European Union action plan on human rights and democracy (2012-2014), the European Union coordinated the creation of a toolbox to contribute towards a rights-based approach to development cooperation. Published in 2014, the toolbox, entitled “A rights-based approach, encompassing all human rights for European Union development cooperation”, aims to outline how the organization will integrate human rights principles into the conceptualization and implementation of its development activities. The toolbox provides details on action to be taken at headquarters and in the field for synchronization between those units. However, probably due to the toolbox’s generic approach, human rights analyses have been judged to be less evident in water and sanitation programmes. Officials reported to the Special Rapporteur that field office teams still lack comprehensive awareness on how to align field operations with the human rights to water and sanitation, as political and civil rights are generally given more prominence. Such insufficiencies were previously identified in an evaluation of European Union development cooperation activities. However, it was reported that ongoing training on the rights-based approach at headquarters and country offices has aimed to address, inter alia, the rights to water and sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Among the six funders analysed, instruments and methods were identified in various forms, most often comprising a combination of tools and guidelines undertaken or applied at different levels, such as at headquarters, in country offices and with local project implementers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The European Union’s indirect focus on water and sanitation services in its most recent policy is an expression of the European Commission’s inclination to diminish the role of water, sanitation and hygiene as a stand-alone sector of the organization’s development cooperation agenda. Relevant officials confirmed this reprioritization to the Special Rapporteur. The low profile of the sector in the European Union cooperation policy raises concerns as to the organization’s capacity to align its operations with the human rights to water and sanitation, particularly since the other sectors that encompass water and sanitation do not incorporate that specific human rights framework. In 2015, the European Parliament recommended that the Commission give high priority to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector in partner States, recognizing the human rights dimensions of access to those services in development cooperation activities. The Special Rapporteur observed that the Commission has still not given meaningful consideration to those recommendations. Commentators consider that the lack of “normative coherence” in the European Union’s policy on water and sanitation has diminished its ability to conduct transformative development, an ambition associated, inter alia, with the aims of Sustainable Development Goal 6.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Finally, through the Yokohama Action Plan, a regional strategy for the period 2013-2017 focusing on the African region, Japan committed to specific targets for its development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector, for example, to improve access to safe water and sanitary conditions for 10 million people per year.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- The Japan International Cooperation Agency has informed the Special Rapporteur that the strategy is currently under revision and will address the standards of the human rights to water and sanitation with greater clarity. The Special Rapporteur strongly encourages the Agency to effectively infuse the document with the human rights framework.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Certain key elements of the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation are found in the water and sanitation sectoral intervention framework, 2014-2018, a guiding reference for the activities of the French Development Agency. In that document, the human rights to water and sanitation are recognized; however, the framework of those human rights is incorporated selectively throughout a variety of the strategic areas instead of occupying a clearly prominent role. For instance, one priority strategy aims to provide sustainable access to water and sanitation services for all, with a scope of action extending from urban areas to rural areas for the sanitation subsector. The objectives of that strategy demonstrate attention to human rights aspects: permanent, continuous access to water and sanitation services; affordable services through mechanisms that consider the most vulnerable populations, such as social tariffs; and water quality corresponding to World Health Organization parameters. The strategy also contains provisions suggesting that acceptability of systems will be attributed importance. However, in citing only a “greater involvement” of users in that respect, the Agency does not effectively provide a guarantee that users will be able to participate and make their views considered systematically and with priority.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph