Press Release on The Human Right to Water and Sanitation
Posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Press Release on
The human right to water and sanitation
The 28th of July 2010 is a date of great significance in the fight for human rights across the globe, and sets a milestone in our battle for water democracy: on this date, by a vote of 122 in favour, none against and 41 abstentions, the General Assembly of the United Nations has passed a Resolution for the Right to Water that calls on States and international organizations to:
“[…] provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.”
It goes on to declare that:
“Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights.”
The resolution was put forward by Bolivia, where a campaign was started in response to the attempts of a private company to privatize water denying free public access of people to one of the most basic human necessities.
Pablo Solon stressed on how the human body is fundamentally made up of water; it is possible for human beings to survive without food, but not without water as the loss of 20% of body water is enough to cause death.
Each day, more than 1 million people worldwide lack access to a basic human necessity for life, water. More than 2 million people per year, mostly children die from water related diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
Navdanya worked closely with the Bolivian Ambassador to the UN Pablo Solon and the NGOs fighting to defend the right to water to see that the campaign for right to water be successful. Together, Navdanya and Pablo Solon fought to restore water as a common good to be officially recognized as an inviolable human right.
After the privatizing drive in Bolivia, India too was faced with the same dangers as the World Bank drafted proposals to initiate projects for the privatization of Delhi waters. In response to this, Navdanya launched the Jal Swaraj Abhiyan to restore water sovereignty, advocating free water for all.
In 2002, people joined in the Ganga Yatra – People’s Movement against the diversion of the Ganga water to Delhi, chanting the slogan “Mother Ganga is not for sale”. In 2005, after continued efforts from the people and NGOs in defense of water democracy, the Delhi Government dropped the World Bank project.
The recognition of water as a basic human right constitutes a great victory for the people across the world, as it reiterates that water is a public good and should be available and accessible to all.
Below is an extract from the intervention of the Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on “The Human Right to Water and Sanitation”:
“Mr. President,
Human rights were not born as fully developed concepts, but are built on reality and experience. For example, the human rights to education and work included in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights were constructed and specified over time, with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international legal instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The same will occur with the human right to water and sanitation.
That is why we emphasize and encourage in the third operative paragraph of this resolution that the independent expert continue working on all aspects of her mandate and present to the General Assembly “the principal challenges related to the realization of the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation and their impact on the achievement of Millennium Development Goals.”
The Summit on the Millennium Development Goals is approaching, and it is necessary to give a clear signal to the world that drinking-water and sanitation are a human right, and that we will do everything possible to reach this goal, which we have only 5 more years to achieve.
That is why we are convinced of the importance of the second operative paragraph of this resolution, which “Calls upon States and international organizations to provide financial resources, capacity-building and technology transfer, through international assistance and cooperation, in particular to developing countries, in order to scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all;
All resolutions contain a passage that we can point to as the heart of the matter, and the heart of this resolution is in its first operative paragraph. Throughout many informal consultations, we have striven to accommodate the different concerns of the Member States, leaving aside issues that do not pertain to this resolution and always seeking balance, but without loosing the essence of the resolution.
The right to drinking water and sanitation is a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life.
Drinking water and sanitation are not only elements or principal components of other rights such as “the right to an adequate standard of living.” The right to drinking water and sanitation are independent rights that should be recognized as such. It is not sufficient to urge States to comply with their human rights obligations relative to access to drinking water and sanitation. Instead, it is necessary to call on states to promote and protect the human right to drinking water and sanitation.”
Categorized as Uncategorized