A/HRC/12/50 Recalling 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, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Recalling also relevant provisions of declarations and programmes with regard to access to safe drinking water and sanitation adopted by major United Nations conferences and summits, and by the General Assembly at its special sessions and during follow-up meetings, inter alia, the Mar del Plata Action Plan on Water Development and Administration, adopted at the United Nations Water Conference in March 1977, Agenda 21, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, and the Habitat Agenda, adopted at the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in 1996, Taking note with interest of regional commitments and initiatives promoting the further realization of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, including in the Protocol on Water and Health, adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 1999, the European Charter on Water Resources, adopted by the Council of Europe in 2001, the Abuja Declaration, adopted at the first Africa-South America summit in 2006, the message from Beppu, adopted at the first AsianPacific Water Summit in 2007, the Delhi Declaration, adopted at the third South Asian Conference on Sanitation in 2008, and the Cairo Declaration, adopted at the fifteenth summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2009, Bearing in mind the commitments made by the international community to achieve fully the Millennium Development Goals, and stressing, in that context, the resolve of Heads of State and Government, as expressed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water, and to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, as agreed in the Johannesburg Plan of Action, Deeply concerned that approximately 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and that over 2.5 billion do not have access to basic sanitation, Reaffirming the fact 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, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entail obligations for States parties in relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Welcoming the consultation with the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation on 29 April 2009, Recalling General Assembly resolution 61/192 of 20 December 2006, in which the Assembly declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, 1. Welcomes the work of the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, including the undertaking of country missions; 2. Acknowledges with appreciation the independent expert’s first annual report (A/HRC/12/24), including her recommendations and the clarifications with regard to the content of human rights obligations in the access to sanitation, proposing, inter alia, the categories of availability, quality, physical accessibility, affordability and acceptability; 16