The Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation

A/RES/78/206View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71bHuman rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2023.

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

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Grouped automatically by matching titles within the same organ.

What subjects does this mandate have?

2 topics

Right to Drinking Water Sanitation Services

What does this mandate say?

32 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, as components of the right to an adequate standard of living, are essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life and all human rights;

Also reaffirms that the human right to safe drinking water entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have 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 of the Human Rights Council on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and invites him to work, within his mandate, to collaborate and engage with Member States and other stakeholders, including civil society, in achieving the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets;

Calls upon States:

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 individuals belonging to groups at risk and those who are marginalized on the grounds of race, gender, age, disability, ethnicity, culture, religion and national or social origin or on any other grounds;

To prioritize as a matter of urgency the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation services that are accessible to all, including persons in vulnerable situations, especially in densely populated, impoverished and rural areas, as a means of enhancing pandemic preparedness and preventing the spread of infectious diseases;

To protect and restore water-related ecosystems and prioritize, as appropriate, in their water management policies, the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation for all, in particular those affected by lack of access to safe and adequate water and sanitation due to poverty or water scarcity;

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

To take into consideration the New Urban Agenda, which envisages cities and human settlements that fulfil their social function, the full realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, without discrimination, and universal access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation;

To ensure access to safe and affordable drinking water and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all women and girls, as well as for menstrual hygiene management, including for hygiene facilities and services in public and private spaces;

To take measures to empower all women and girls for preparedness in humanitarian emergencies and crises, including in times of armed conflict or natural disaster, by ensuring access to water and sanitation services and implementing gender-responsive policies, plans and programmes that address, inter alia, effective menstrual health and hygiene management and adequate disposal options for menstrual products, without compromising their rights, safety and dignity;

To address the widespread stigma and shame surrounding menstruation and menstrual hygiene by promoting educational and health practices in and out of schools in order to foster a culture in which menstruation is recognized as healthy and natural and by ensuring access to factual information thereon, including for men and boys, addressing the negative social norms around the issue, as well as ensuring universal access to hygienic products and gender-sensitive facilities, including disposal and waste management options for menstrual 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 promote both women’s leadership and their full, effective and equal participation in decision-making on water and sanitation management and to ensure that a gender-based approach is adopted in relation to water and sanitation programmes;

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 girls’ access to education and the full enjoyment of their right to education, including through improved public services and infrastructure;

To promote safe public spaces and improve the security and safety of women and girls through gender-responsive rural and urban planning and infrastructure when accessing sanitation facilities outside their homes or practising open defecation and urination;

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 their home or when practising open defecation and urination, including through promoting safe public spaces and improving the security and safety of women and girls through gender-responsive rural and urban planning and infrastructure;

To take steps to ensure that water and sanitation facilities and services are accessible for persons with disabilities and apply the principles of universal design in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, especially children with disabilities;

To progressively eliminate open defecation by adopting policies to increase access to sanitation, including for individuals who are vulnerable or marginalized;

To raise international awareness of the issue of waterborne diseases, in particular cholera and child diarrhoea, which can be prevented through safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene and engaging in partnerships with relevant stakeholders to implement projects aimed at scaling up access to safe water and sanitation in developing countries;

To apply broad and inclusive participatory approaches, consulting and coordinating with local communities and other stakeholders, including organizations of women, girls, persons with disabilities and broader civil society, and the private sector, on adequate solutions to ensure sustainable, equitable and non-discriminatory access to safe drinking water and sanitation;

To enhance efforts to substantially reduce the share of untreated wastewater released into the environment and to ensure that plans and programmes for improving sanitation services take into account the need for appropriate systems for the treatment of wastewater produced, including disposal of infant faeces, with the aim of reducing the risks to human health, drinking water resources and the environment, acknowledging the potential of wastewater reuse;

To identify patterns of failure to respect, protect or fulfil the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation for all persons without discrimination and to address their structural causes in policymaking and budgeting within a broader framework, while undertaking holistic planning aimed at achieving sustainable universal access, including in instances where the private sector, donors and non-governmental organizations are involved in service provision;

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;

To ensure, as appropriate, that their development efforts in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene are aligned with their human rights obligations under international law;

Calls upon States and international organizations to provide financial resources and support capacity-building and technology transfer to help countries, at their request, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all;

Calls upon non-State actors, including business enterprises, both transnational and others, to comply with their responsibility to respect human rights, including the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, including by cooperating with State investigations into allegations of abuses of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and by progressively engaging with States to detect and remedy abuses of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation;

Stresses the important role of the international cooperation and technical assistance provided by States, specialized agencies of the United Nations system and international and development partners, as well as by donor agencies, urges development partners to adopt a human rights-based approach when designing and implementing development programmes in support of national initiatives and plans of action related to the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and invites regional and international organizations to complement efforts by States to progressively realize the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation in accordance with their respective mandates;

Calls upon Member States, in order to effectively respond to and achieve sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery from health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and their consequences, to urgently, inter alia, enhance efforts to realize the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as ensure access to hand-washing and hygiene, and, by 2030, implement integrated water resources management, at all levels, including through collaborative approaches, in order to ensure a sustainable supply of water for life, agriculture and food production and other ecosystem services and other benefits;

Also calls upon Member States to expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including sustainable water harvesting, environmentally sustainable desalination technologies, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies;

Further calls upon Member States to enhance global partnerships for sustainable development as a means to achieve and sustain the Goals and the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and highlights that the 2030 Agenda marks a paradigm shift towards a more balanced and integrated plan of action for achieving sustainable development that reflects the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights;

Reaffirms that the high-level political forum on sustainable development, under the auspices of the General Assembly and of the Economic and Social Council, has the central role in overseeing follow-up and review at the global level of the Sustainable Development Goals, and encourages Member States to share their experiences and best practices;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its eightieth session.

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