Take action now: just two weeks to persuade governments to approve UN Human Rights Council resolution

On 8 September 2010, the Spanish and German delegation raised a resolution on the Rights to Water and Sanitation at the  UN Human Rights Council which builds on the recognition of these rights several weeks ago at the UN General Assembly.

 

At the previous resolution where the rights to water and sanitation were affirmed, the U.N. General Assembly acknowledged the work of the U.N. Independent Expert on human rights related to water and sanitation and called for this work to continue in Geneva.

 

This resolution is an opportunity for the Human Rights Council to respond to this call by the General Assembly, build on the momentum that the UN General Assembly resolution created and to bring clarity to what the affirmation of these rights means in practice – for example that these rights are derived from the right to an adequate standard of living contained in Article 11 of the ICESCR and Article 25 of the UDHR.

  

Things are suddenly moving very quickly! Action by you and your country’s government is needed to see that this resolution is adopted this month. Use our materials below to take action and be heard on the rights to water and sanitation.

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Advocacy resources
Download an example letter (that you can tailor to send to your country representative but, BECAUSE TIME IS SHORT, it is best to send this in addition to calling or speaking to them face to face

Find out more about the Votes on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation at the General Assembly

Read the Draft Human Rights Council Resolution on the Right To Water and Sanitation – also available in Portuguese – Os Direitos Humanos à água e ao saneamento and in Spanish – Propuesta d resolución derecho humano al agua

See also:

>>Priority States for Lobbying

>>Background info

>>Action at the 15th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

Key notes

Many countries matter even if they do not currently have a seat on the Human Rights Council as they exercise influence regionally and internationally with other members (ie Netherlands, Canada, Nigeria). Please speak to them and ask them to advocate for this resolution. A list of priority states for lobbying is below. The members of the Council are in bold.

If your country is supportive of this resolution, please emphasize that it is important that they are vocal about this throughout the process this month and that they attend the ‘open informal’ sessions that will be scheduled to discuss the text. At the moment, it sounds as if there will be one in the middle of next week (Wednesday or Thursday).

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Background

In 2008, the Human Rights Council established a three year mandate for an Independent Expert whose responsibility involves ‘elaborating on the content of human rights obligations in relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation’. The sponsors of the resolution establishing the mandate intended for this process to lead to recognition of the rights to water and sanitation by the Human Rights Council. The Independent Expert has released a series of country reports, a report in 2009 focusing on human rights obligations related to sanitation and a report in 2010 year on non-State provision of water and sanitation.

In July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proposed by Bolivia that “Recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as ahuman right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” The resolution was adopted by 122 votes, none against, 41 abstaining and 30 absent from the vote. This resolution was a significant achievement, but did not specify the legal basis of the rights and did not achieve overwhelming support. The primary reason given by States who abstained on the resolution  was that the resolution should have followed the ongoing process at the Human Rights Council to elaborate these rights. The US and Uk indicated that the right to water and sanitation was not legally binding.

Action at the 15th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

At the 15th session of the Council, the Council will consider affirming the recognition of the rights to water and sanitation, and possibly go further to clarify that the rights are implicitly contained in Article 11 of the ICESCR. The resolution is likely to also address the issue of non-State provision of water and sanitation, in reaction to the Independent Expert’s recent report on this subject.

Please call on all States to support a resolution recognising the rights to water and sanitation and specifying that these rights are derived from Article 11 of the ICESCR and Article 25 of the UDHR, as set out in the attached model letter. As with the above-mentioned July 2010 GA Resolution, the September resolution at the HRC will involve a vote.

It should not be taken for granted that States will vote precisely the same manner as they did at the General Assembly. Some States that voted in favour at the General Assembly may have been influenced by the fact that the resolution was sponsored by Bolivia, whereas at the Council the resolution will be sponsored by Germany and Spain. Some of the States that abstained or did not vote at the General Assembly may have done so due to the unexpected nature of the resolution there, which did not allow for sufficient time for them to establish their position. However, at the Council, the resolution recognising the rights is part of an ongoing process and, particularly following the General Assembly resolution, will not be unexpected.

Priority States for Lobbying

The following States are those that may be influenced to support the recognition of the rights and/or to actively lobby other States to recognise these rights. The list is limited to States that have previously participated in negotiations at the Council or the GA on this issue and/or have a vote on the current Council (Current HRC members indicated in bold):
 

Priority States that voted in favour of the GA Resolution:

Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti,Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives,Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen.

 

Priority States that abstained on the GA Resolution:

Australia, Austria, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ethiopia, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, New Zealand,Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Zambia.

 

Priority States that did not vote on the GA Resolution:

Cameroon, Mauritania, Philippines, Uganda

World Water Week — Why are we here?

The FAN delegation is busy networking and attending important meetings at World Water Week – an annual meeting place which aims to look at the planet’s most urgent water-related issues and is organised by the thinktank Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

FAN members and Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) champions Doreen, Rudy and Yakub explain in their own words why they are attending:

Rudolf Nsorwinne Amenga-Etego, Executive Director – Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives in Africa who is representing the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW):

Doreen Kabasindi, Executive Director Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET) (a water and sanitation civil society network in Uganda part of ANEW):

Yakub Hossain, Deputy Executive Director Village Education Resource Center, representing Freshwater Action Network South Asia:

Danielle Morley, Executive Secretary, and Kolleen Bouchane, Advocacy and Learning Officer, are also learning and networking at the event – focusing particularly on climate change and the Rights to Water and Sanitation. See our twitter feed for all the latest updates: @fannetwork

UN recognition of right to water and sanitation — never too late to say thanks again!

Although it has been nearly two weeks since the United Nations General Assembly declared that  safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right many emails and tweets are still being sent around celebrating this historic resolution. 

It is still very exciting!

FAN members and others who contacted your governments – please take a moment out to thank yourselves again for your important role in this landmark decision! 

FAN welcomed the resolution, voted for by 122 countries, as it not only builds on the important work of FAN members and others in the sector who are working to secure these rights at the local, national and regional levels, it also builds on the work of the UN Independent Expert (IE) on human rights obligations related to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2008. 

Importantly, the resolution did not neglect to mention sanitation. Diarrhoea, caused by lack of sanitation, is now the biggest killer of children under five in Africa. Although the resolution did not  recognize sanitation as a distinct right – the inclusion of sanitation is still significant, as nearly two fifths of the world’s population (2.6 billion people) do not have access to adequate sanitation. FAN will continue to work to have these rights affirmed separately.

Although no country voted against the resolution, it was unfortunately not passed by consensus – reflecting that perhaps the critical mass of political will on these issues does not yet exist. This in spite of the fact that at least 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. 

Four thousand children a day. The biggest killer of children under five in Africa.

For these two reasons and many others, FAN will continue to work on the recognition of these human rights, as these rights and a rights based approach are critical to ensuring access to the billions currently living without sanitation and the millions without access to safe water. 

FAN will also continue our support for the efforts of the Independent Expert. Through country missions, wide consultation and serious discussion and debate, the IE has continued to expose the layers of issues related to these human rights and provide greater understanding of why these rights deserve recognition and what this means in practice. Undoubtedly, this work will continue to accelerate momentum towards rights and access for all.  

If you have your stories/questions/thoughts about working to secure the rights to sanitation and water where you are – please share!

Find out how your country representatives voted and tell them what you think! It is never too late to say thank you to those country representatives and let them know that they have your support.

Kolleen

Reflections on participation in the UN MDG hearings.

Lajana Manandhar, FANSA steering committee member and Country Convenor of FAN Nepal

The following is a second guest post from Lajana Manandhar, FANSA steering committee member and Country Convenor of FAN Nepal pictured right, about her reflections on her participation at the UN civil society consultation on the Millennium Development Goals

One questions stays with me after the hearings; I learnt that there are just so many and many networks and network of the networks of civil society organizations in this world.  Every one is working so hard to contribute in alleviating poverty and miseries from this world.  But little success we have made.  Why? Something somewhere must have gone wrong.

After thinking further on the MDG hearing at the UN, I can say that these are the key things that have learned from the experience:

• I felt that GCAP and Third world Networks are large global civil society organisations’ networks and we must be an active member of these networks to make an effective input in the policy influencing.  If FAN or FANSA was a part of these networks, impact will be certainly different.  The network of the networks will certainly carry a heavy weight with campaigning and help us to make new partners.

• Global level advocacy needs to be given a continuous push.  Never a one stop activity.  Many important high level meetings also seem to be taking place frequently these days.  We need to be very clear on our goal, agenda (demand for change) and strategy.  We need to be very clear on the link between regional and global policy influencing.

• Presentations at a high level do not necessarily need to be bland technical demands, although the presenters were asked and advised to present in that way.  Some of the presentations made in a form of emotional personal story telling were touching, highly appreciated and left an impact on their audience.  This automatically tells the listeners what to do and what not to do.  I learnt that demand can be effectively put in different forms, and I think that not reading directly from my notes allowed for a more receptive audience.

• There wasn’t enough focus on water and sanitation issues. We should be doing more to influence elites into prioritizing water supply and sanitation as an urgent issue. Immediately after the session 3, few CSO leaders came to me and appreciated the statements I had made.  One of them had said, “Your two questions are still ringing in my ear.”  I had asked two simple questions in the plenary if they had any idea about how many people worldwide had defecated in an open space that morning and how many children die worldwide every year due to the lack of proper sanitation.

• I learnt that being stationed in Kathmandu, heading Lumanti and FAN Nepal and also being a steering committee member of FANSA, I have no mechanisms to influence global policy other than signing petition letters at the moment. I see a large gap. We should be contributing to policy at the country level and in South Asia as well, which will help us at the global level. We need variety of different approaches.

• I understand now that there is a big opportunity and a lot to be done to take it as the MDG summit is just around the corner.  But we should not stop there as we need to think beyond summits as well.  I am happy to get involved in any important process that I can make useful contribution.

So, we can be clear with our demands, push for policy influence at the country and regional levels as well as get a place in the global networks, and keep track of the many meetings at high levels so we can maintain a continuous push. We can also now think of how what ways there are to influence.

Partiipation at the Hearing has been a great experience and I would like to thank everyone who had supported me, especially FAN Global and FANSA.

Urgent: Contact your government about the importance of the Right to Sanitation

A draft resolution on the human right to water and sanitation proposed by Bolivia is currently being discussed in the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

This is great news!

However, throughout the negotiations there has been talk of removing sanitation and focusing only on water. This would mean that the United Nations deliberately decided not to acknowledge sanitation as a human right. We can not let this happen.

Take Action: If you have any contacts with your government or any in your region (particularly the foreign ministry and/or water and sanitation ministers) please call them today or first thing in the morning as the next informal discussions are tomorrow (7 July) and ask them to contact the relevant U.N. officials to ensure that sanitation is not removed from this draft resolution.

The text of the resolution will by finalized by mid-July. If you are reading this after 7 July – IT IS NOT TOO LATE. These process are sometimes delayed particularly if many people are weighing in.

Please still reach out to your contacts. If the officials you speak with are not informed on the sanitation crisis, you can share the following facts and your first-hand experience with them.

• A systematic analysis of child mortality recently published the in lancet medical journal found that Diarrhoea, caused by poor or non-existent sanitation is now the biggest killer of children under five in Africa.
• The numbers of people without access to sanitation are rising. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Report notes that by 2015, 2.7 billion people will not have access to sanitation.
• It is impossible to realise the recognized right to an adequate standard of living (as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 25.1 ) without access to sanitation.
• The Millennium Development Goal on sanitation is way off track and without significant change will not be achieved until 23rd century.

Changing the above situation will require increased political will at the highest levels – this will be greatly undermined if sanitation is not included in this resolution.

Please call your government officials today and if you have another moment, let us know that you called them and how it went.

If you have any questions feel free to contact:

Kolleen Bouchane Advocacy Action and Learning Officer Freshwater Action Network T +44 (0) 20 7793 2230 skype: kolleenbouchane kbouchane@freshwateraction.net http://www.freshwateraction.net http://www.twitter.com/fannetwork http://www.righttowater.org.uk

‘We are all downstream’ – Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula on the African Water Stewardship Initiative

Please welcome our latest guest blogger Professor Oweyegha-Afunaduula, Chairman of Nile Basin Discourse (NBD) and a member ANEW.

He shares his experiences of his recent lobbying  success of committing the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) to host the new African Water Stewardship Initiative (AWSI).

I recently attended the Water Stewardship meeting in Brussels, which brought together international NGOs, water service providers and private sector organizations to (i) present a case for the water roundtable process; (ii) refine the proposed benefits and model for international water stewardship standards development; Build understanding and alignment on key global water use impacts;(iii) explain the proposed roadmap for creating multi-stakeholder standards; and (iv) describe engagement opportunities and invite participation in the water Roundtable and regional initiatives.

Filling the gaps at the UN civil society consultation on the MDGs

The following is a guest post from Lajana Manandhar, FANSA steering committee member and Country Convenor of FAN Nepal pictured right, about her participation at the UN civil society consultation on the Millennium Development Goals

This is the first time that I am writing to share with you my feelings after participating and speaking at the UN civil society hearing on the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) in the General Assembly (14 – 15 June 2010).  Let me sum up my feelings in a few key points for your clear understanding on my experience from the Hearing.

World Water Forum views from FANAS and FAN MEX

Jaime Bastos Neto, one of the Directors of Ipanema Institue in Brazil and member of FAN South America (FANAS) talks about his impressions of the 6th World World Water Forum Kick Off meeting in Marseille, France, June 2010. Ceridwen Johnson asked him what difference it made for him to be there and what he’ll tell members of FANAS on his return.

In Portuguese:

Jaime Bastos Neto, um dos directores do Ipanema Institue no Brasil e membro do FAN América do Sul (FANAS) fala sobre suas impressões do mundo World Water Forum sexta reunião Kick Off em Marselha, França, Junho de 2010. Ceridwen Johnson lhe perguntou o que ele fez diferença para ele estar lá e que ele vai dizer aos membros da FANAS em seu retorno.

And from Horacio Bonfil, FAN Mexico:

Southern CSO voice influencing and collaborating at the United Nations

Lajana Manandhar, FANSA steering committee member and Country Convenor of FAN Nepal, is making most of her opportunity to input in to the UN General Assembly CSO Hearings on MDG+10 summit this week in order to influence the preparatory process for the High-level Plenary Meeting on 20-22 September 2010. She is currently in New York participating in the convention.

6th World Water Forum. Will this be The Forum for Solutions?

By Ceridwen Johnson, Communications Manager, Freshwater Action Network

Just over a week since I returned from WWF6 preparatory meeting, I am  sharing a few further observations and updates from the meeting.

We were reminded at the end of this two day preparatory meeting for the 6th World Water Forum of the World Water Vision that came from the 2nd World Water Forum, ten years ago: a world were people have a voice in decisions that directly affect their lives and their livelihoods

High level speeches over the two days outlined ambitious aims for the next forum, to be held in 2012. Ger Bergkamp, Director General, World Water Council, wants to invest in professionalism and good planning so it can become the forum for solutions; a truly participatory forum with clarity of purpose, linked to high level political events leading to international commitments to take action. Political commitment from France was, indeed, demonstrated with Nicolas Sarkosy, President of France himself endorsing the forum and with the announcement from French Secretary of State for Ecology, Chantal Jouanno, that one of the three key aims for the forum for the French Government is to have Right to Water recognised at the International level.

Break out session on the right to water

As FAN has been significantly involved on work around the Rights to Water and Sanitation (RTWS) and having co convened the sessions on this topic at WWF5, I joined this session. Our group was smaller than some of the other, perhaps more unwieldy, gatherings and attracted a rich and diverse mix of people seemingly genuinely committed to improving the understanding, recognition and promotion of RTWS. We had representatives from NGOs, government ministries and private sector and an in depth discussion led to a proposed way forward to feedback to the WWC. (participant list at the end)

We agreed that a huge effort is required to dispel country fears around the meaning of RTWS and share current learning from implementation. As our sessions in WWF5 aimed to do this, we discussed what else it would take. The main idea that came out forth was a peer to peer sharing event, held well in advance of the next forum. This would aim to be a non-threatening process, to demystify fears and share positive experiences. We envisaged a multi-stakeholder event with policy-makers more involved in discussions and representatives from local municipalities in countries who are opposed also present.

Ceridwen Johnson and Thomas van Waeyenberge, AQUAFED capture the group discussion

Pledges

Having members of the South African and French ministries in the room helped us to think ambitiously about how to get the right people in the room and both representatives tentatively pledged that a joint invitation would come from the Presidents of South Africa and France to ensure ministerial participation. The meeting would be framed as a preparatory international meeting, hosted by South Africans in Durban 2011. This verbal proposal was tabled by the South African representatives later on to Ger Bergkamp and Ben Braga, Vice President of the WWC, who verbally agreed to take it forward.

We formally requested a pledge from the World Water Council to take up a lead role ensuring that these discussions have adequate support and adequate space to bring into the debates at the 6th WWF as well as the high level political process. Freshwater Action network (FAN) pledged to mobilise Southern Civil Society, along with Action Contre La Faim (ACF), working in partnership with other networks and NGOs. AQUAFED pledged to mobilize operators and to get Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on the Rights to Water and Sanitation, on board.

Our views on the process

We formally stated that

• We would like to see Southern CSOs included in the process with a proposed target of 1,000 active and adequately funded civil society participants.

• The political process must be more robust, multi-stakeholder and participatory with a focus on measurable commitments.

• At the forum, we’d like to see a Ministerial declaration which recognises the Rights to Water and Sanitation sending a clear message to Rio + 20 summit, and linked to other International and regional processes.

Throughout the forum, the FAN team were highlighting the fact that true multi-stakeholder participation means including people working on and directly affected by the issues in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We will be asking FAN Governing Council to jointly send a letter to the Forum organisers requesting them to allocate sufficient time and adequate resources required for this to happen and for FAN to be given a role in mobilising an active Southern CSO involved from the preparatory process to contribute to agenda setting and with a key role in the forum.

Participating:

• Julie Aubriot, Action Contre la Faim, France

• Laurent Caplat, Ministry of Ecologie, Energy, and SD et de la Mer, France

• Ceridwen Johnson, Freshwater Action Network (FAN)

• Neil Macleod, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Water Dept, Durban, SA

• Thomas van Waeyenberge, AQUAFED

• Trevor , South African government

• Celine du Bray, WWC

• Jacques Labres, Suez

• Jean Charles Ladoic, City of Marseille

Next steps – as outlined by Ben Braga, Vice President of the WWC

• The outcomes of the meeting will be consolidated by end of July and worked at international forum committee level.

• Preliminary formulation of the forum by September

• Meeting to elaborate the forum around November 2010 – better design of forum and define roles of collaborating institutions in 2011

• Progressively structure the forum – regions – political – thematic

• Build a bottom up and participatory process