A/HRC/42/47 classified as such.7 Other understanding draws upon how a place is used to decide whether it warrants the status of public space, with places that are utilized as communal zones for interpersonal interaction deemed worthy of that title. 8 Additionally, however, newer, progressive definitions are slowly coming to reflect the reality that public space is a much broader, more nuanced concept than previously recognized. For example, the New Urban Agenda, adopted by the General Assembly in 2016, situates the definition of public space in the outputs that such places are capable of achieving, defining them as “multifunctional areas for social interaction and inclusion, human health and well-being, economic exchange and cultural expression … and that are designed and managed to ensure human development and build peaceful, inclusive and participatory societies, as well as to promote living together, connectivity and social inclusion.” 19. Those more nuanced definitions more accurately capture the reality of what public spaces are and what they mean to individuals and communities. They reflect the potential of public spaces to be places of participation, association and inclusion that can serve a vital role in society, rather than simply acknowledging their tangible reality, and they implicitly open the door for the consideration of public spaces as zones for the progressive realization of human rights. 20. The present report takes into account elements of the latter definitions relating to access to water and sanitation services under the idea that public spaces are places that facilitate positive social, economic, and cultural effects on individuals, societies and States. However, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that the concept of public space must also recognize the vital role of these places as spheres where people can exercise their human rights and where those rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. By reflecting that element in definitions of public space, policy decisions on those spaces will be required to acknowledge their importance to human rights and, accordingly, proper consideration given in such decisions as to how best to ensure human rights. In national law and policies, States should therefore recognize such places as domains of participation, equality and inclusion, accessible to all, and which may be utilized by all to claim their human rights, including their human rights to water and sanitation. B. Legislative framework 21. In order for public spaces to be duly recognized as arenas of importance to the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation and for concerted measures to be taken towards the progressive realization of those rights, it is critical that legislative frameworks underpinning those rights in that context are in place to ensure that responsibility is taken for achieving those objectives. 22. In his previous report on the regulation of service provision, the Special Rapporteur emphasized the importance of States taking concerted and immediate steps towards the implementation of effective national legal frameworks to implement and regulate the provision of water and sanitation services (A/HRC/36/45). In the present report, he highlights the need to broaden regulatory frameworks, including the obligation to implement regulation of access to services in public spaces. 23. The implementation of effective legislative frameworks in public spaces can assist in addressing the difficulties that are regularly faced when seeking ways to implement or maintain access to water and sanitation. Such difficulties can hamper access or even generate retrogressive effects in the progressive realization of those rights. Public spaces often fall outside the remit of formal water and sanitation providers and those actors are rarely encouraged to include public spaces in their operational mandates, thereby limiting the availability of services. Furthermore, public authorities, and local authorities in 7 8 6 See Lidia Mierzejewska, “Appropriation of public urban space as an effect of privatisation and globalisation”, Quaestiones Geographicae, vol. 30, No. 4 (2011). See Hare Kılıçaslan, “Urban metaphors in the interaction of child with public space”, Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 10, No. 3 (2018).