A/HRC/36/45 6. Participation and access to information 55. To meet human rights standards, regulatory decision-making processes must ensure genuine public participation in key decisions. Every individual and group has the right to participate actively, freely and in a meaningful way in the process of setting service standards that may affect their enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation. Positive measures will often be required to ensure that all people, including women and populations in vulnerable situations, are given a real opportunity to take part in and influence the making of regulations. The Special Rapporteur cautions that attempts to ensure women’s participation through regulatory processes may not correspond to local customary norms and the implementation may subsequently fail (see A/HRC/33/49, paras. 56 and 59). Therefore, mechanisms must be put in place to involve women in formulating regulations on water and sanitation and to remove barriers to their participation. 56. Regulations should ensure that decisions on the type and location of services and on improvements to services are participatory and inclusive. Inclusiveness in this process is crucial, so that services are designed to respond to the needs of the population, including of those in vulnerable situations. 57. Access to information and transparency are essential in order for participation to be meaningful. Regulatory actors must enable a culture of transparency by providing access to information that is objective, comprehensible, clear and consistent and is made available to everybody in different formats and in the appropriate language. The Special Rapporteur has observed that in El Salvador, decisions on water rationing measures are not systematically publicized and there seems to be no standard rule for informing users about such measures (see A/HRC/33/49/Add.1, para. 32). Similarly, the results of quality tests on water for human consumption are neither made public nor sent to users. Regulation of the ways in which information should be shared is therefore essential. 7. Equality and non-discrimination 58. A regulatory framework should contain positive measures or affirmative action that ensure the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation for all, in a non-discriminatory manner, while eliminating inequalities in access, including for individuals belonging to groups at risk and groups that are marginalized on the grounds of race, gender, age, disability, ethnicity, culture, religion, national or social origin or any other grounds. Such measures should target specific challenges, including: (a) prioritization of the extension of coverage of water and sanitation services to rural and deprived urban areas, while taking into account the specific needs of women and children; (b) the denial of the rights to water and sanitation to people living in informal settlements, on the grounds of their housing or land status; and (c) the lack of affordability of services for the poorest. 8. Sustainability 59. When setting standards, regulation should aim to achieve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of service provision. Regulation should mirror the State’s obligation to guarantee the rights to water and sanitation sustainably and without discrimination, for both present and future generations. 28 This means that today’s services should not limit or negatively affect future generations’ access to services. To that end, when developing a regulatory framework, States should ensure an integrated regulatory approach for the services, including both the regulation of the sector as a whole and the regulation of each service provider individually. 29 Regulation also has a role to play in contributing to providing preparedness and resilience measures for emergency situations. 60. Promoting the affordability of services, together with a level of cost recovery that meets the requirements for financial sustainability, is a major challenge for regulatory frameworks. Regulatory actors must strike the fine balance between enabling service providers to adequately perform operational and maintenance activities, considering 28 29 14 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 15, para. 11. Lisbon Charter, art. 7.3.