A/HRC/10/6 page 11 regional ministerial conferences have been held on issues related to sanitation33 and specific fund-raising efforts have focused on providing resources to targeted sanitation programmes.34 Local initiatives have also been launched to raise awareness about issues related to sanitation and hygiene.35 More broadly, and even before the International Year of Sanitation, international efforts have been organized, such as the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) campaign, which have placed an emphasis on children and youth and gender-sensitive hygiene education. Also on 15 October 2008, Global Handwashing Day was celebrated in over 70 countries with initiatives aimed at making handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into a life-saving habit. 29. However, despite these laudable activities and initiatives in the past year, the subject matter still suffers from little attention and less investment, when compared with the associated area of water, which itself still receives insufficient overall attention. 30. The independent expert considers it crucial to explore and identify the human rights obligations regarding sanitation. Human rights law offers a framework by which duty bearers may better understand their obligations and rights holders may be able to better claim their rights. In fact, sanitation can be related to human rights in at least three different ways. First, the enjoyment of a large number of human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social hinges on access to sanitation. Secondly, lack of access to sanitation is frequently a consequence of larger societal discrimination, inequality and exclusion, fundamentally inconsistent with human rights protection. Thirdly, and more fundamentally, lack of access to sanitation constitutes, in itself, a serious human rights concern, as it relates to the inherent dignity of the human being. Sanitation is undoubtedly a matter of human rights and it is the link between the two that the independent expert wishes to further explore, in accordance with her mandate, in the course of 2009. 31. Although lack of access to sanitation is at the origin of the non-realization of basic human rights, the area of sanitation has not been adequately analysed from a human rights perspective. 33 For example, regional sanitation conferences have been held, such as the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN), 16-21 November 2008, New Delhi, declaration available at http://ddws.nic.in/infosacosan/ppt/Delhi%20Declaration%207.pdf; the Caribbean Sanitation Workshop (CARIBSAN 2008), 28-29 April 2008, Kingston, recommendations available at http://www.latinosan2007.net/caribsan/PDFs/Caribsan-Recommendations.pdf; the Second African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan+5), 18-21 February 2008, Durban, South Africa, eThekwini declaration and AfricaSan action plan available at http://www.wsp.org/UserFiles/file/eThekwiniAfricaSan.pdf. 34 For instance, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council launched the Global Sanitation Fund - the first global mechanism for financing sanitation. 35 Details about various events and initiatives organized to mark the International Year for Sanitation can be found at: http://esa.un.org/iys/IYSaction.shtml.