A/HRC/15/31 3. Human rights impact assessment 43. A human rights impact assessment can serve as a tool for ensuring compliance with human rights. It can be described as a “systematic process to investigate and measure the impact of policies, programmes, projects, and interventions on human rights”.36 The decision to delegate service provision should be preceded by an ex ante assessment that carefully considers the potential impact on the realization of human rights, including the rights to water and sanitation. 44. States are encouraged to build human rights impact assessments into the process of deciding on the means of service provision and monitoring such provision, as well as to adopt legislation that imposes on service providers the obligation to carry out a human rights impact assessment. Service providers have a responsibility to undertake these assessments as part of exercising due diligence to become aware of the actual and potential impact of their action on the human rights to water and sanitation. On that basis, the State and service providers can work together to integrate human rights into water and sanitation policies, thereby ensuring compliance with human rights law, preventing human rights violations and maximizing positive effects. 45. Depending on the scale and expected impact of the decision and the size and capacity of the actor carrying out the assessment, the human rights impact assessment does not necessarily have to be very formal in nature. To facilitate the process, it could also be integrated with social or environmental impact assessments. While there is no agreed template for conducting a human rights impact assessment,37 some principal elements can be identified that should be taken into account:38 (a) Any assessment should be explicitly based on human rights, including the rights to water and sanitation; (b) The human rights impact on the most excluded and marginalized should specifically be addressed; (c) The process of carrying out the assessment itself should be in line with human rights principles, including active, free and meaningful participation, nondiscrimination, gender equality, transparency and accountability; (d) The process should strive to contribute to strengthening the capacities of relevant stakeholders; (e) The assessment should seek to involve national, regional and international human rights mechanisms as their respective mandates and capacities allow. 36 37 38 Saskia Bakker and others, “Human rights impact assessment in practice: the case of the Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI)”, Journal of Human Rights Practice, vol. 1, No. 3 (November 2009), pp. 436–458, p. 436. For a description of possible phases and steps that can be followed in such an assessment, see Gauthier de Beco, “Human rights impact assessments”, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, vol. 27, No. 2 (2009), 139–166; International Business Leaders Forum and International Finance Corporation, Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management, Road-testing draft (Washington, D.C., 2007). See in this regard Simon Walker, The Future of Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade Agreements (Intersentia, Antwerp, 2009), pp. 30-38. 15