A/HRC/45/11 I. Introduction 1. In view of the tenth anniversary of General Assembly resolution 64/292 and Human Rights Council resolution 15/9 recognizing the human right to water and sanitation, the Council, in its resolution 42/5, requested the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation to initiate and participate in awareness-raising activities, including through social media and with the use of accessible materials, and to compile good practices in order to promote the progressive realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. Pursuant to that request, the Special Rapporteur submits the present report, which illustrates selected developments and progress made in realizing the human rights to water and sanitation since 2010. 2. Even though a decade has passed since water and sanitation have been explicitly recognized as human rights, the specifics of how to implement them require further clarification and understanding. The present report is being submitted together with the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report, focused on the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation,1 in which he provides a practical guideline for States to apply when implementing the obligation of progressive realization. That report should be read in conjunction with the present report, which highlights examples of specific aspects of the progress made. Also related to those two reports are the Special Rapporteur’s seven followup reports related to his country visits (four presented to the Human Rights Council at its forty-second session2 and three presented at its forty-fifth session3), which provide specific examples of progress made in the countries concerned, assessed according to a set of categories he has established: good progress, progress ongoing, limited progress, progress not started and retrogression. 3. During the six years of his mandate (2014–2020), in accordance with the vision he identified at the outset of his mandate, the Special Rapporteur prioritized translating existing legal principles and human rights norms into public policies and implementation mechanisms that contribute to the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. 4 The outcomes of his efforts include 12 thematic reports, which highlight the human rightsbased approach to various issues related to access to water and sanitation. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur has compiled, in the light of the observations made in his previous thematic reports, examples of progress identified in realizing the human rights to water and sanitation since 2010. The progress is analysed through a three-dimensional framework: human rights as a driver (see section III, on development cooperation and megaprojects), human rights as a policy tool (see section IV, on different levels of services, affordability, service regulation and accountability), and human rights as a people-centric approach (see section V, on gender, forcibly displaced persons and public spaces). The present report does not reflect the last two thematic reports by the Special Rapporteur, on progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, 5 submitted concurrently with the present report, and on privatization, which will be submitted to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session. 4. In preparation for the report, the Special Rapporteur put out a call for inputs; he received 21 submissions within the deadline.6 Due to financial limitations on the support provided to the Special Rapporteur to carry out the request made by the Human Rights Council to compile good practices, the Special Rapporteur has targeted the scope of the report, using specific criteria to identify and assess progress in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. The questions in the call for inputs reflected those criteria, and the examples of progress provided in the present report are from the submissions received or sources supplementary to the submissions. The selection of cases introduced are not an endorsement by the Special Rapporteur but rather an illustration of possible ways of progressively realizing the human rights to water and sanitation. 1 2 3 4 5 6 A/HRC/45/10. A/HRC/42/47/Add.3–6. A/HRC/45/10/Add.1–3. A/HRC/30/39/Add.1, para. 4. A/HRC/45/10. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/WaterAndSanitation/SRWater/Pages/GoodPractices2020.aspx. 3