We celebrate the Rights to Water and Sanitation!

I mentioned a previous post how at the end of the ANEW Learning Forum on Equity and Inclusion we celebrated the passing of the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on the Rights to Water and Sanitation.

After the announcement we tried to capture what we were feeling about this historic occasion so we could share it.

In this short clip, ANEW member Aflodis Kagaba and I share our thoughts and excitement and in the clip below that ANEW Executive Secretary Jamillah Mwanjisi speaks briefly about what this means and then tells us to get back to work!

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

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