UN Water Launches Brief on Non-Discrimination in Water and Sanitation Provision
On 27 October, UN Water, the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues, launched Eliminating Discrimination and Inequalities in Access to Water and Sanitation, a policy brief on providing universal access to water and sanitation. The launch was sponsored by Finnish and Vietnamese permanent missions.
The event featured a dialogue between Léo Heller, the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and stakeholders from government and civil society. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for access to water and sanitation to be acknowledged as human rights, saying that otherwise “there will be no accountability for the deprivation and denial suffered by millions, and no meaningful progress in international efforts to expand safe access.”
Special Rapporteur Heller also promoted a rights-based approach to water and sanitation, adding that “a human rights approach is a powerful tool for eliminating inequalities in access and achieving universal access to safe water and sanitation in the new development agenda.”
Currently, 663 million people in the world lack access to improved sources of drinking water, while 2.4 billion people lack access to safe sanitation.
On 19 November, UN Water will host World Toilet Day.
Read more about the human right to water and sanitation here.