A/HRC/7/78 page 63 7/22. Human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation The Human Rights Council, Reaffirming the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, Recalling its resolution 6/8 of 28 September 2007 and decision 2/104 of 27 November 2006 on human rights and equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Bearing in mind paragraph 6 of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, Recalling its resolutions 5/1 on institution-building of the Council and 5/2 on the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate-holders of the Council, of 18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate-holder shall discharge his/her duties in accordance with those resolutions and the annexes thereto, Recalling also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Recalling further relevant provisions of declarations and programmes with regard to access to safe drinking water and sanitation adopted at major United Nations conferences and summits and by the General Assembly at its special sessions and their follow-up meetings, inter alia the Mar del Plata Action Plan on Water Development and Administration, Agenda 21 adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development or the Habitat Agenda adopted by the Habitat II conference, Noting general comment No. 15 (2002) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the right to water (articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), Recalling commitments made by the international community to fully implement the Millennium Development Goals and stressing, in that context, the resolve of the Heads of State and Government, as expressed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, Recalling also General Assembly resolution 61/192 of 20 December 2006, in which the Assembly declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, Deeply concerned that over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water and that 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation, Emphasizing that international human rights law instruments, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child entail obligations in relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation,