Press Release: Human Right to Water

NGOs Call on Governments to Strengthen
the Human Right to Water

An international group of NGOs at the World Water Forum in Mexico, have called on Governments to agree to a formal declaration at the UN Human Rights Council that would result in a commitment to implement all actions within their power to guarantee that every human being shall have the right to sufficient and affordable clean water in or near their home, school or workplace.

Scott Leckie, Executive Director of the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), said, “Billions of people are unable to hold governments, corporations and international organizations accountable when they deliberately neglect the poor, such as people living in informal settlements, and when they violate the right of water users to participate in decision making on how their services are managed, as has been seen in many enforced privatizations of water services.”

The group of NGOs are calling for governments to:

• Adopt a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council to strengthen the right to water.
• Establish an international mechanism to monitor implementation of the right to water, such as a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water.
• Bring, as a matter of priority, their national water and sanitation laws and policies in line with UN General Comment 15 on the Right to Water.

More than a billion individuals lack basic water supply and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. Ten thousand people die each day due to preventable diseases such as diarrhoea which are caused by a lack of clean water and sanitation. The inability of people to access water for their basic needs is rarely due to a lack of sufficient water in any country. Rather, people are without safe water because the infrastructure and regulatory capacities to protect water sources and distribute water are not in place. The know-how and technologies, in particular, are generally available. What is lacking in many countries, and among the international community, is the political will to govern water effectively and to devote the necessary resources to ensure safe water for all.

Areli Sandoval, of the Network for the Coordination of Organisations on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Mexico (Espacio DESC) said, “Stronger international and national standards are only a preliminary step among a variety of actions required to ensure the right to water. NGOs are also working on the ground to directly assist communities whose right to water is being denied through advocacy, research and court action at the international and national level, such as communities in Ghana whose drinking water is being polluted by mining activities.”

Millions of school-aged girls in Africa have dropped out of school due to their responsibility of fetching water or because their schools do not have water. Access by indigenous peoples, nomadic groups and poor farmers to traditional sources of water is constantly threatened by pollution and encroachment of more powerful groups. These examples clearly highlight the need for civil society and communities denied sufficient water to hold governments and corporations to their legal and political commitments.

The human right to water is legally binding upon the 152 countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 2002, the UN Committee empowered to interpret the treaty adopted General Comment 15 on the Right to Water. It sets out detailed standards on what governments must do to respect and ensure the right to water for all. Some countries, such as Uruguay, Indonesia and Ukraine have recently revised their national laws to formally recognize the right to water. However, most countries have not done so as yet. Certain countries such as the United States and Canada have in fact refused to accept the right to water and UN General Comment 15.

Amongst the NGOs signing this joint appeal are human rights groups, social movements, development groups and think tanks, including:

• ACORD (Uganda).
• Alliance Sud
• Both Ends
• Bread for the World - Germany
• Blue Planet Project
• Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace
• Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
• Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water (COMDA)
• Council of Canadians
• Deca, Equipo Pueblo, A. C. - México
• Espacio DESC – Mexico
• Food and Water Watch
• FIAN International - Food First Information and Action Network
• FIAN - Sección México.
• Grupo Tacuba, A. C. - México
• Heinrich Böll Stiftung
• PELUM – Lesotho
• Interamerican Platform on Human Rights, Democracy and Development - Peru

Please consult the web-sites of these organizations for further information on the right to water and struggles to defend these rights.

Many of the NGOs signing this joint appeal are members of the ‘Friends of the Right to Water’ group of civil society organisations who envisage an eventual international treaty to lock-in and strengthen current international standards on the right to water. This group of NGOs have also been carrying out consultations with a broad range of civil society movements in order to develop a draft international treaty on the right to water, including at sessions at the official World Water Forum and at the International Forum for the Defence of Water.

For interviews please contact:

In Mexico
Ashfaq Khalfan, Coordinator,
COHRE Right to Water Programme,
Tel: +52.55.5566.9688 (Room 111)
Mob: +44.78.998.05.445
E-mail: ashfaq@cohre.org

or

Areli Sandoval, Espacio DESC
Coordinator, Citizen Diplomacy Programme, Equipo Pueblo
Tel: +52.55.5674.4646/+52.55.5539.0015
E-mail: arelisandoval@equipopueblo.org.mx or espaciodesc@yahoo.com.mx

In Thailand
Scott Leckie
Executive Director, COHRE
Tel: +66.22.373.460
Mob: +41.79.242.8033