A/HRC/18/2
Part One
Resolutions, decisions and President’s statements
I. Resolutions
18/1
The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming all previous relevant resolutions of the Human Rights Council, inter
alia, resolutions 7/22 of 28 March 2008, 12/8 of 1 October 2009, 15/9 of 30 September
2010 and 16/2 of 24 March 2011,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 64/292 of 28 July 2010, in which the
Assembly recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human
right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights,
Recalling also the holding of the General Assembly plenary meeting of 27 July 2011
entitled “The human right to water and sanitation”,
Recalling further the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities,
Recalling the relevant provisions of declarations and programmes with regard to
access to safe drinking water and sanitation adopted by major United Nations conferences
and summits, and by the General Assembly at its special sessions and during follow-up
meetings, inter alia, the Mar del Plata Action Plan on Water Development and
Administration, adopted at the United Nations Water Conference in March 1977, Agenda
21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, and the Habitat
Agenda, adopted at the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in June
1996, Assembly resolutions 54/175 of 17 December 1999 on the right to development, and
58/217 of 23 December 2003 proclaiming the International Decade for Action, “Water for
Life” (2005–2015),
Noting with interest relevant commitments and initiatives promoting the human right
to safe drinking water and sanitation, including the Abuja Declaration, adopted at the first
Africa-South America Summit, in 2006, the message from Beppu, adopted at the first AsiaPacific Water Summit, in 2007, the Delhi Declaration, adopted at the third South Asian
Conference on Sanitation, in 2008, the Sharm el-Sheikh Final Document, adopted at the
Fifteenth Summit Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Movement of NonAligned Countries, in 2009, and the Colombo Declaration, adopted at the fourth South
Asian Conference on Sanitation, in 2011,
Bearing in mind the commitments made by the international community to achieve
fully the Millennium Development Goals, and stressing, in that context, the resolve of
Heads of State and Government, as expressed in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe
drinking water, and to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, as
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