A/HRC/16/2 approximately 1.5 million children under 5 years of age die and 443 million school days are lost as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases, Affirming the need to focus on local and national perspectives in considering the issue, leaving aside questions of international watercourse law and all transboundary water issues, Recalling Council resolutions 5/1, on institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and 5/2, on the code of conduct for special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, of 18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate holder shall discharge his or her duties in accordance with those resolutions and the annexes thereto, 1. Welcomes the recognition of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, and the affirmation by the latter that the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living and inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as the right to life and human dignity; 2. Also 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 progress in collecting good practices for her compendium,1 the comprehensive, transparent and inclusive consultations conducted with relevant and interested actors from all regions for her thematic reports and compilation of good practices, as well as the undertaking of country missions; 3. Taking note with interest of the statement of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the right to sanitation,2 as a complement to the Committee’s general comment No. 15;3 4. Decides to extend the mandate of the current mandate holder as a special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation for a period of three years; 5. Encourages the Special Rapporteur, in fulfilling his or her mandate: (a) To promote the full realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation by, inter alia, continuing to give particular emphasis to practical solutions with regard to its implementation, in particular in the context of country missions, and following the criteria of availability, quality, physical accessibility, affordability and acceptability; (b) To pay particular attention to persons belonging to vulnerable and marginalized groups, including by respecting the principles of non-discrimination and gender equality; (c) To work on identifying challenges and obstacles to the full realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as protection gaps thereto, and to continue to identify good practices and enabling factors in this regard; (d) To monitor the way in which the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is being realized throughout the world; 1 2 3 GE.11-17059 A/HRC/15/31/Add.1. E/C.12/2010/1. E/C.12/2002/11. 9