The Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation

A/HRC/RES/45/8No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2020.

What else is in this group?

14 documents · 2012–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

2025A/RES/80/216The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationCompare with earlier document
2025A/HRC/RES/60/9The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationCompare with earlier document
2024A/HRC/RES/57/13The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/78/206The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationCompare with earlier document
2022A/RES/76/153The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationCompare with earlier document

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Grouped automatically by matching titles within the same organ.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Human Rights Right to Drinking Water Sanitation Sustainable Development Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

23 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the human right to safe drinking water entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have sustained access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use, and that the human right to sanitation entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity, while reaffirming that both rights are components of the right to an adequate standard of living;

Welcomes the work of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and takes note with appreciation of his reports;

Reaffirms that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full realization of all human rights and must take steps, nationally and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of their available resources, to achieve progressively the full realization of the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation by all appropriate means, including in particular the adoption of legislative measures in the implementation of their human rights obligations;

Stresses the important role of international cooperation and technical assistance by States, specialized agencies of the United Nations system and international and development partners, and by donor agencies, in particular in the timely achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals, urges development partners to adopt a human rights-based approach that includes menstrual health management when designing, implementing and monitoring development programmes in support of national initiatives and plans of action relating to the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and invites regional and international organizations to complement the efforts made by States to progressively realize the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, in accordance with their respective mandates;

Underlines the importance of an effective remedy for violations of economic, social and cultural rights, including the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and in this regard of judicial, quasi-judicial and other appropriate remedies, including procedures initiated by or on behalf of individuals or, as appropriate, groups of individuals, and of adequate procedures to avoid infringements of such rights with a view to ensuring justice for all for violations in the context of the realization of the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation as components of the right to an adequate standard of living, including taking the measures necessary to ensure that women and girls and persons in vulnerable situations have equal access to effective remedies;

Notes with concern that, in spite of all efforts, gender inequalities still exist in the realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, in particular as a result of women’s and girls’ specific needs concerning menstrual hygiene and menstrual health;

Calls upon States:

To implement the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including Goal 6 on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, in accordance with their obligations under international law;

To consider making the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 6, a priority at the highest level in order to ensure the progressive realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation for all in a non-discriminatory manner while eliminating inequalities in access, including for persons in vulnerable situations and marginalized groups, on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, as well as on any other grounds, including disability;

To increase public funding and support private capital in order to make adequate funding available to the sector and to close the financing gap that hampers the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 and the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation;

To monitor continuously and analyse regularly the status of the realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, to enhance efforts to improve the availability, accessibility, quality and use of water-related data at the local, national and regional levels, and to develop disaggregated and gender-responsive indicators and monitoring mechanisms;

To promote both women’s leadership and the full, effective, meaningful and equal participation of women in planning, decision-making and implementation on water and sanitation management; to ensure that a gender-based approach is adopted in relation to water and sanitation programmes and that measures are taken to reduce the time spent by women and girls in collecting household water, in order to address the negative impact of inadequate water and sanitation services on the access of girls to education; to protect women and girls from being physically threatened or assaulted, including from sexual violence, while collecting household water and when accessing sanitation facilities outside of their home or practising open defecation; to protect women’s and girls’ equal access to water and sanitation; and to take positive measures to guarantee their availability and accessibility;

To promote safe public spaces and to improve the security and safety of all women and girls through gender-responsive rural and urban planning and infrastructure when accessing sanitation facilities and water waste collection and treatment facilities outside their homes or when collecting household water;

To enhance international solidarity, cooperation and support for countries hosting large numbers of displaced persons and refugees in addressing their water- and sanitation-related challenges;

To address the widespread stigma and shame surrounding menstruation and menstrual hygiene by ensuring access to factual information thereon, addressing the negative social norms around the issue in order to foster a culture in which menstruation is recognized as healthy and natural, and ensuring universal access to hygienic products and gender-sensitive facilities, including options for the disposal and waste management of menstrual hygiene products, while recognizing that women’s and girls’ attendance at school, university or, for women, work, can be affected by negative perceptions of menstruation and lack of means to maintain personal hygiene, such as safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools, public places and, for women, the workplace;

To take steps to promote action to raise international awareness of the issue of waterborne diseases and to mitigate the disproportionate impact of water-, sanitation- and hygiene-related diseases on children, and to reduce child mortality, morbidity and stunting by ensuring the progressive realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and by engaging in partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects aimed at scaling up access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in developing countries;

To take measures to accelerate the realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 6 global acceleration framework, in particular in the context of responding to and preventing the spread of COVID-19, including by working collaboratively with all stakeholders in a coordinated manner to improve water and sanitation services and by ensuring that water and sanitation systems are resilient and sustainable in order to protect people’s health and support national health systems;

To step up disease prevention efforts by ensuring access to safe, adequate and affordable water and sanitation services for all in public and private spaces;

To apply broad and inclusive participatory approaches, consulting and coordinating with local communities and other stakeholders, including civil society and the private sector, on adequate solutions to ensure sustainable and non-discriminatory access to adequate water and sanitation services;

To provide for effective accountability mechanisms for all water and sanitation service providers, including private sector providers, to ensure that they respect human rights and do not cause or contribute to human rights violations or abuses;

Encourages all Governments to continue to respond favourably to requests by the Special Rapporteur for information and to conduct country visits, to follow up effectively on the recommendations of the mandate holder and to make available information on measures taken in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the resources and assistance necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate;

Decides to continue its consideration of this matter under the same agenda item at its fifty-first session.

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