Accra, 23 February 2009

 

COHRE's Right to Water Programme has today released a new report on the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector. This publication reviews the existing legal and policy framework of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector using international human rights standards. The objective of the review is to determine the extent to which the framework guarantees the right to water and sanitation in accordance with Ghana's international human rights obligations. The report titled A rights-based review of the legal and policy framework of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector, highlights key areas requiring attention and makes specific recommendations for improvement.

The full report and a detached executive summary are available at: http://www.cohre.org/ghana

The new Bolivian Constitution, which was adopted on 25 January 2009 by popular referendum (61,5 % for, 38,5 % against), explicitly guarantees the right to water and sanitation:

New Constitution of Bolivia, 2009 (Unofficial translation)

 

Article 16

I. Everyone has the right to water and food.

II. The State is under the obligation to guarantee food security, by means of healthy, adequate and sufficient alimentation for the entire population.

 

Article 20

I. Everyone has the right to universal and equitable access to the basic services of drinking water, sanitation, electricity, gas for household uses, postal services and telecommunication.

II. The provision of basic services by means of public, mixed, cooperative or collective bodies is the responsibility of the State, with all its levels of government. In the cases of electricity, gas for household uses and telecommunications the service can be provided through contracts with private companies. The provision of services must correspond with the criteria of universality, responsibility, accessibility, continuity, quality, efficiency, equitable tariffs and necessary coverage; with participation and social control.

III. Access to water and sanitation constitute human rights; they can not be the object of concessions or privatisation and are subject to a regime of licenses and registers, in accordance with the law.

 

The full Spanish version is available at: http://www.geocities.com/cpbolivia/newcpe.htm

New Delhi, 21 November 2008

The eight SACOSAN member States India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka today officially concluded the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN III) held in New Delhi from 18 to 21 November with the adoption of the Delhi Declaration.

On 16 and 17 November, representatives of civil society organizations from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, as well as international NGOs, including COHRE, had held a civil society meeting in New Delhi. At the end of this two-day Pre-SACOSAN Civil Society Meet, which was organised by COHRE partners Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA), WaterAid and WSSCC, a comprehensive civil society declaration was adopted, which reflects not only the views of the more than 150 delegates present at Delhi, but of hundreds of CSOs, CBOs and representatives of grassroots initiatives who participated in the various civil society consultations that had earlier been held at country level.

The CSO Declaration called upon the SACOSAN States to reaffirm prior commitments recognizing access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as a basic human right and significantly increase efforts to address the sanitation crisis in the region, which continues to cause human suffering on an epic scale. With 1 million children killed by diarrhoea in the region in the two years since the last SACASON conference in Islamabad and close to 800 million people still daily facing the indignity of open defecation, civil society’s message was that business as usual is simply not an option.

And the voice of civil society did not go unheard. To the contrary: governments showed overwhelming interest in the CSO Declaration and in fact included all key points called for by civil society in the official Delhi Declaration.

In particular, the eight SACOSAN States have followed the central recommendation advocated by COHRE in bilateral talks with Ministers and heads of delegations, namely that the Delhi Declaration should reaffirm that access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation constitutes a basic human right.

UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, also send a statement to SACOSAN III calling upon the partcipating States to reaffirm their earlier recognition of the right.

The Delhi Declaration now explicitly provides under point 1 that SACOSAN States "[r]ecognise that access to sanitation and safe drinking water is a basic right, and according national priority to sanitation is imperative".

Another remarkable step is that the SACOSAN governments have agreed to include into the Delhi Declaration a comprehensive “Indicative South Asia Roadmap for Achieving Sanitation Goals”, which can be understood to underline the political will to accelerate and better monitor progress.

COHRE joins its international and regional partners in welcoming the Delhi Declaration. By reaffirming that access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a basic human right, the eight SACOSAN States have indeed expressed a strong commitment to address the sanitation crisis in the region more vigorously in the years to come.

More generally, the SACOSAN governments and the Indian host government in particular should also be applauded for their openness to take into account the views of civil society, as evidenced by the Delhi Declaration. In this sense, SACOSAN III has set a new standard for the future conferences in Sri Lanka in 2010 and Nepal in 2012.

What is now required from participating States is to follow up on the rhetorics without delay and take concrete action to significantly accellerate progress towards ensuring access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation for all people in South Asia. As Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh noted in his inaugural speech, “Good sanitation should be a birth right of EVERY citizen in South Asia”.

The reaffirmation of the right to water and sanitation in the Delhi Declaration will help civil society organizations acting at local, national, regional and international level to hold SACOSAN States to account and engage with governments at all levels to promote reforms in law and policy to ensure that the extension of basic water and sanitation services to all people is made a genuine political and development priority.

3 October 2008: Ecuador recently ratified a new Constitution which, among other economic, social and cultural rights, recognises the right to water and sanitation.

As part of work to draft the new Constitution, COHRE’s Americas Programme and Right to Water Programme, together with various social organisations from Latin America, lobbied over a six month period for the recognition of these rights and participated in the preparation of proposals for, inter alia, constitutional provisions on the rights to water and sanitation, the right to housing, and the right to the city.

Article 12 of the new Constitution now stipulates that "The human right to water is fundamental and indispensable."
Article 66(2) recognizes the right to a life in dignity, including drinking water, housing, and environmental sanitation.
Article 314(1) states that the State shall be responsible for the provision of the public services, including drinking water and sanitation. Article 314(2) adds that the State is obliged to provide these services in accordance with the principles of obligatoriness, generality, uniformity, efficiency, responsability, universality, accesibility, regularity, continuity and quality.
Paragraph 1 of Article 411 provides that the State shall regulate all activities that can affect water quantity and quality, while paragraph 2 of the same article identifies water for ecosystems and water for human consumption as the two priority uses of water.

In addition, Transitory Provision No. 26 provides that all instances of delegation of public water and sanitation services to private enterprises shall be audited with regard to financial, legal, environmental and social aspects within 300 days from the entry into force of the new constitution and that the State shall, in accordane with the terms of the new Constitution and the results of the audits, determine the validity, renegotiation, or termination of the delegation contracts. The same article also states that users living in extreme poverty shall be forgiven all debts incurred for water for human uses to the date of entry into force of the new Constitution.

For more information go here for a full version in Spanish of the new Constitution text.

COHRE and Hakijamii Trust urge African leaders to endorse eThekwini Declaration on sanitation in Africa and declare access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation a basic human right

The African Union (AU) is holding its 11th Summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from 24 June to 1 July. The Heads of State and Government of the AU member States will be meeting in the framework of the Assembly of the African Union on 30 June and 1 July. The theme of this year's Summit of Heads of State and Government is meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on water and sanitation in Africa.

COHRE and Hakijamii Trust have sent letters of appeal to the governments of Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana (available in the document box below), Guinea, Kenya (available in the document box below) , Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia, urging these countries to endorse the eThekwini Declararation (available for download in the document box below) and to follow the example set by Asia-Pacific States in the "Message from Beppu" and declare access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation a basic human right at the Summit. A similar appeal has been submitted to the Technical Avsory Committee of the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW-TAC, available in the document box below).

The other letters to governments can be obtained from Kerubo (kerubo@cohre.org) or Thorsten (thorsten@cohre.org).

In a landmark decision, the High Court of South Africa ruled that the City of Johannesburg’s practice of forced installation of pre-paid water meters in Phiri, Soweto, was unconstitutional. In addition, the Court required the provision of 50 litres of free water per person per day.
The full High Court judgment, an analysis of the ruling and background materials are available at: Right to Water - South Africa

COHRE releases report on the impact of sanctions and the blockade on the human right to water and sanitation in Gaza. The full report and the media release can be downloaded from the box below.

COHRE releases the Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation.
The full Manual and the Executive Summary are available for download at www.cohre.org/manualrtws

At the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, held in Beppu, Japan, on 3-4th December 2007, the representatives from 36 Asia-Pacific countries unanimously endorsed the “Message from Beppu” which explicitly recognizes "the people's right to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as a basic human right and a fundamental aspect of human security".

On 14 September 2007, COHRE held a well-attended parallel event at the Human Rights Council titled "Human Rights and Access to Water and Sanitation - Acting on the Report of the OHCHR". Speakers included Maria Francisca Ize-Charin (OHCHR), Uschi Eid (Member of German Parliament), Silvia Escobar (Spanish Ambassador for Human Rights) and Ashfaq Khalfan (COHRE). The OHCHR Report is available under the Resources and Articles section at www.cohre.org/water.

The first publication of its kind, the Draft Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation is released for public consultation by COHRE and its partners. Comments are invited by 27 August 2007. The draft Manual is available at www.cohre.org/manualrtws

COHRE and Umande Trust provide comments on the Kenyan National Water Services Strategy (NWSS), a document that commits to importants steps to implement the right to water and sanitation

The Coordinator of COHRE's Right to Water Programme gave a presentation at a consultation organised by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights relating to its upcoming study on human rights and access to water and sanitation.

In a speech given by the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation on the occasion of World Water Day, the Netherlands recognised the human right to water. In a joint letter to the Minister, COHRE and fellow NGOs Both ENDS and SIMAVI welcome this step and offer their assistance in implementing a human rights approach to water and sanitation.

COHRE welcomes the recognition of the right to water in the regulatory framework for metropolitan Buenos Aires and proposes detailed amendments to fully reflect international standards on the right to water and sanitation.

The UN Human Rights Council adopts a decision, without a vote, to request the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct a study on relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments.

In the Final Document of the 14th Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Havana, Cuba in September 2006 the 117 member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) recalled General Comment No. 15 and acknowledged the right to water for all.
In May 2006, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the NAM member countries had already acknowledged the right to water in the Final Document of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

The United Kingdom decides to support the human right to water, after an inter-ministerial review and advocacy by UK based NGOs and COHRE.

The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, an expert body that advises the UN Human Rights Council, adopts detailed Guidelines for the Realisation of the Right to Drinking Water and Sanitation. The Guidelines, which highlight the main and most urgent components of the right to water and sanitation, may be downloaded below. (See all key United Nations documents under ‘Resources and Articles’ below).

The United Nations Human Development Report 2006 characterises the pervasive lack of access to water and sanitation as a form of exclusion similar to apartheid and calls on all governments to recognise the right to water in their national systems and to commit to action plans of implementation.

At the World Water Forum in Mexico, COHRE and seventeen partner organizations release a joint appeal calling for a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the right to water and a UN Special Rapportuer on the Right to Water.

In June 2005, COHRE provided presentations on the right to water for regional meetings for legislators and for civil society, organised by Bread for the World, Lutheran World Federation and Norwegian Church Aid.

This policy paper, prepared by COHRE staff; Virginia Roaf, Ashfaq Khalfan and Malcolm Langford sets outs the options for human rights indicators for the right to water and sanitation, and provides a draft set of indicators. This policy paper is available for download under 'Resources and Articles'.

On World Water Day, 22 March 2005, COHRE hosted a parallel event together with the Governments of Germany and Mexico at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, entitled: Clean Water for the Poor: Making the Human Right to Water a Reality.

COHRE and the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development call on the Canadian government to endorse the right to water.