A/HRC/45/11 35. In relation to disconnections of water services, several States have taken measures to explicitly prohibit disconnection. Most recently, due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, the national water provider in Costa Rica issued Directive GG-2020-01225, which suspends all disconnections to water and sanitation due to non-payment (from 20 of March until further notice).45 In other examples, measures to prohibit disconnections have been implemented with safeguards to provide minimum levels of water. In Poland, the Act on collective water supplies and wastewater collection permits disconnection in case of nonpayment, however, it obliges the utilities to provide users with a substitute water source. 46 Another way to address disconnection due to inability to pay is found in Colombia, where community-managed systems operate under the principle of solidarity and reciprocity, 47 which means that communities can make both financial and in-kind contributions for the delivery of services. For instance, users are not disconnected in case of monetary nonpayment, but asked to contribute in the form of labour, such as support in administrative or maintenance tasks. C. Service regulation Special Rapporteur’s report on service regulation48 1. 36. Since 2010, the importance of creating an enabling environment, namely, policy, legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks, for the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation has been increasingly recognized. Regulation, in particular, is an essential part of a State’s human rights obligations. Service regulation can contribute towards the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. However, the Special Rapporteur observed that regulation of water and sanitation services has been based mainly on economic regulation and that its objectives, activities and norms are rarely derived from the human rights framework. 37. Regulation can take many forms, each with varying levels of capacity to comply with human rights. In the report on service regulation, the Special Rapporteur explored the distinction between fully incorporating the human rights to water and sanitation into a regulatory framework and choosing some selected aspects of those rights to comply with. One of the key roles of regulation is to set performance standards from a human rights perspective as opposed to from an economic perspective. Regardless of the body carrying out regulatory functions, these standards should reflect and give practical meaning to the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation, with regard to availability, accessibility, quality and safety, affordability, and acceptability, privacy and dignity. While international human rights law does not call for a particular choice of a regulatory framework, it is essential, from a human rights perspective, that those carrying out regulatory functions be immune to pressures from any illegitimate interests and that the main objectives of regulation be aligned with the human rights framework. 2. Progress since 2010 38. Several States have established a regulatory body or framework to regulate water and sanitation services. However, given that those regulatory frameworks mostly prioritize an economic perspective, the criteria used to identify progress focus on the incorporation of a human rights-based approach to the regulation of water and sanitation services provision. Specifically, whether the regulatory body is independent and whether it is aligned with the human rights framework in full. It is challenging to provide specific examples where regulatory frameworks or bodies are fully aligned with the human rights framework. However, in some States, the regulatory bodies in place incorporate some elements of the human rights to water and sanitation. 39. One example is the Office of the Superintendent of Basic Sanitation in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, designated as the regulatory body in accordance with Law No. 2066 of 2000, which establishes the institutional and regulatory framework for water 45 46 47 48 12 Submission from Costa Rica. See also submission from Poland. Submission from the Red Nacional de Acueductos Comunitarios de Colombia. A/HRC/36/45.