Last year, two milestone UN resolutions affirmed the human right to water and sanitation. A great victory for the many who fought to clarify these rights in international law. The more skeptic-minded, perhaps especially those working in water sectors in developed countries, still sighed and said: What is the point of having a human right if it cannot be implemented? I heard the comment no later than yesterday by a colleague in the water sector, experienced in water management and certainly not lacking in solidarity with unserved people in developing countries. I also will never forget the frustration expressed to me by a renowned Professor, deeply committed to address the water situation for the poor, on the whole human rights discussion: it is just words!

Is talk about human rights just words? Are words the opposite of action? Michel Foucault, social theorist who made a significant contribution to social sciences with his theories on discourse, would surely think differently. He found that all periods of history have possessed certain underlying conditions of truth that constituted what was acceptable as, for example, scientific discourse. Looking at history, one can see that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, from one period's view on knowledge to another. What was seen as right and wrong in the 1700s is not the same today. Discourse, words, set the limits for what we see as true, and what we believe is possible for humans to do.  Following this view of the world, the UN deliberations on the right to water and sanitation that seem such a drawn out repetition of words and inaction, would actually be a change of our time’s underlying conditions of truth.  

In September of this year, the UN Human Rights Council also took a next step to help countries go from words to action.  Focusing on national plans of action, a new resolution was passed in the UN Human Rights Council, setting out a range of operational measures that should be taken by governments in order to implement the right to water and sanitation on the ground. This resolution firmly responds to the how- question so frequently asked for by practitioners and sceptics of words. The resolution calls upon States to:

1. Ensure that national minimum standards, based on human rights criteria, are in place when water and sanitation services are decentralized, in order to ensure coherence and countrywide compliance with human rights;
2. Set access targets to be reached in short-time periods for universal service provision, giving priority to realizing a basic level of service for everyone before improving service levels for those already served;
3. Set indicators, including disaggregated data, based on human rights criteria, to monitor progress and to identify shortcomings to be rectified and challenges to be met;
4. Assess whether the existing legislative and policy framework is in line with the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and to repeal, amend or adapt it in order to meet human rights standards and principles;
5. Provide for a regulatory framework aimed at ensuring that all water and sanitation service providers respect and protect human rights and do not cause human rights violations or abuses,
6. Provide for a framework of accountability that provides for adequate monitoring mechanisms and legal remedies, including measures to overcome obstacles in access to justice and other accountability mechanisms and lack of awareness of the law, human rights and opportunities to claim these rights
7. Ensure full transparency of the monitoring and assessment of the implementation of plans of action, projects and programmes in the sectors of water and sanitation and to ensure, including in the planning process, the free, effective, meaningful and non-discriminatory participation of all people and communities concerned, particularly people living in disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable situations;
8. Ensure financing to the maximum of available resources in order to implement all the necessary measures to ensure that water and sanitation systems are sustainable and that services are affordable for everyone, while ensuring that allocated resources are not limited to infrastructure, but also include resources for regulatory activities, operation and maintenance, the institutional and managerial structure and structural measures, including increasing capacity.

It is time to act now!

As this year begins, we know that a series of crucial events will take place that will affect the status of drinking water and sanitation as human rights. Last year, two milestone events took place on the international arena.

On 30 September last year, the UN Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time that the human right to water and sanitation is legally binding. This was a welcome move for all those who have worked hard to clarify the responsibilities for the provision of water and sanitation, and strengthen international support for these rights. The Council now made the clarification that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to adequate standard of living, included in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Council resolution was preceded, in July 2010, by resolution in the UN General Assembly. The resolution, an initiative of Bolivia, "recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights".

What do these statements mean for the one billion people suffering from lack of access to an improved water source, and the 2.6 billion without access to improved sanitation?

Indeed the resolutions provide useful tools for those who work to extend access. By recognising access as a human right, access is not only seen as a need to be fulfilled but as an entitlement for everyone, also those who face physical, institutional, cultural, language or other barriers in society. Human rights prohibit discrimination and they focus on situations of systematic exclusion. What more is, participation in decision-making processes is a key component of any human right. These are some of the sides to the right to water and sanitation that have the potential to change billions of lives. But first, States themselves have to come up with strategies on how they will work to implement the right.

At the next session of the Human Rights Council, the Independent Expert Catarina de Albuquerque, who has been working since 2008 with sorting out all the question marks in the debate on the right to water and sanitation, will present her final report to the Council with recommendations. This will take place in Geneva in late February –early March. The council will then decide whether her mandate will be prolonged and governments who are still hesitant about these human rights will have an opportunity to follow her recommendations and unanimously support the right to water and sanitation.

Some governments, including the Swedish, persist in saying that making access to water and sanitation human rights is not the best way to help people in the South. The best way to solve their problem is through development cooperation. In their scenario, because the lack of water is common, and society’s institutions are not well equipped and developed, Courts will be overloaded as masses of unserved people will claim their right. However, in countries that have recognised the right, this has not been the case.

I cannot help but wonder why developing rule of law and good governance cannot be done in parallel with strengthening legal obligations. Supporting institutions and judiciary systems, while working with those who lack water and sanitation to know their rights and who is responsible goes hand in hand in other issues. Just because many husbands beat their wives, and many wives therefore could take their husbands to court, we still would not dream of giving up freedom from violence as a human right. Human rights set a standard, so that we know what to work for.

by Ann-Marie Karlsson, Project Officer, Swedish Water House