The right to water

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

10 December 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Human rights are the international legal framework recognising the dignity and equality of all people. They are basic rights that belong to everyone regardless of their nationality, race ethnicity, gender or religion and without which people cannot live in dignity. 

In 2002 WaterAid successfully lobbied the UN for recognition the right to water and we continue to lobby for the right to sanitation. 

Water as human right was asserted by the United Nations in 2002 in their General Comment No.15. This clarified the obligation for governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable, accessible and safe water supplies and to safe sanitation services as their resources allow.

This means that while governments are not required to secure immediate access to water for all their population, they are required to progressively seek to improve access year on year.

WaterAid lobbied to establish the right to water and is now working to help the world's poorest people achieve that right in the following ways:

• Helping its partner organisations in Africa and Asia to understand and promote the right to water to lobby their governments to allocate further resources to these basic services.

• Defending the right to water with some governments which question whether the general comment has given sufficient mandate for water to be viewed as a right.

• Working with a range of other rights organisations to develop learning and understanding about the right to water.

WaterAid, in conjunction with Rights and Humanity and the Fresh Water Action Network (FAN) have developed a website to act as an information source on the right to water.

www.righttowater.org.uk

The site aims to:

• Provide information on relevant policy commitments and explain the concepts and theories of human rights law with respect to the right to water.
• Disseminate General Comment No 15 adopted by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights confirming and interpreting the right to water.
• Promote the use of the right to water as a tool for community empowerment, advocacy and legal redress.
  

Read our discussion papers on the right to water

To celebrate anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, we have worked with seven other organisations including Sightsavers and the Malaria Consortium and MPs to table an Early Day Motion. The EDM highlights the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights and urges MPs to continue to strive to improve the lives of millions of people across the world. Find out more