A/HRC/45/10
based on the data provided by national statistical offices. Moreover, the UN-Water Global
Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water initiative examines whether
there is an enabling environment for the provision of water supply, sanitation and hygiene
services, including through national policies and plans.
72.
At the national level, national human rights institutions and ombudspersons are
oversight mechanisms that protect and promote human rights. In many States, however,
their mandates do not cover monitoring State compliance with the human rights to water
and sanitation, a task most often left to regulatory bodies, which often fail to take a human
rights-based approach as a whole to regulation.64 At times, civil society organizations and
communities also play monitoring roles at the national level.
VII. Final remarks
73.
As the Special Rapporteur finishes his six-year term, he wishes to address a frequent
comment expressed by many practitioners: that human rights are not clear and that they
simply represent pie-in-the-sky ideals that are pleasant to contemplate but unrealistic and
impractical. As illustrated in the present report, human rights are contextual and do not
provide the clear-cut solutions that many are searching for; nonetheless, they do provide a
framework for compliance with their standards. What is correct for one country may not be
the best solution for another and, therefore, the role of a United Nations human rights
expert is not to prescribe a standard solution but, rather, to provide guidelines for States,
practitioners and civil society to implement the progressive realization of human rights to
water and sanitation taking into account the specific national and local contexts.
74.
A decade has passed since water and sanitation have been explicitly recognized as
human rights,65 yet the specifics of how to implement the obligation to progressively realize
those rights still require further clarification and understanding. Through this report, and by
addressing the broad scope of the obligation of progressive realization, the Special
Rapporteur provides several guidelines and principles that States should consider when
implementing the obligation to progressively realize the human rights to water and
sanitation.
75.
The full realization of the human rights to water and sanitation cannot be left to
States alone. The larger human rights ecosystem is composed of other actors, particularly
those that monitor State compliance, which ranges from treaty to statistical bodies, from
national to international bodies and from governmental to non-governmental bodies. Private
actors working in the water and sanitation sector must understand that they too are bound
by human rights obligations, particularly when they provide services by delegation from
States and when national legislation reflects a State’s international human rights obligations.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that monitoring bodies introduce and utilize the
guiding questions contained in the present report in identifying and assessing the
progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation.
64
65
A/HRC/36/45.
General Assembly resolution 64/292. See also the information on the campaign to celebrate the 10
years of the human rights to water and sanitation available from
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/WaterAndSanitation/SRWater/Pages/10Anniversary.aspx.
19
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents