A/HRC/12/24 page 18 Political Rights further provides for equal protection under the law, including “effective protection against discrimination”. The treaty bodies have raised the issue of sanitation in the context of discussions on discriminatory treatment in their dialogues with States parties. For example, they have expressed concern about sanitation for Roma people,73 Dalits,74 refugees and asylum-seekers,75 indigenous peoples,76 religious minorities,77 and migrants.78 The Special Rapporteur on torture has also specifically addressed sanitation with regard to persons with disabilities.79 V. SANITATION AS A DISTINCT RIGHT 55. The above analysis demonstrates that access to sanitation is indispensable, and has been recognized as such under international law, both by States and experts, for the enjoyment of numerous human rights.80 However, it does not provide a complete picture of the human rights dimensions of sanitation. Sanitation is not just about health, housing, education, work, gender equality, and the ability to survive. Sanitation, more than many other human rights issue, evokes the concept of human dignity; consider the vulnerability and shame that so many people experience every day when, again, they are forced to defecate in the open, in a bucket or a plastic bag. It is the indignity of this situation that causes the embarrassment. The Supreme Court of India eloquently described the indignity of lack of access to sanitation where the Court found that the failure of the municipality to provide basic public conveniences was driving “the miserable slum-dwellers to ease in the streets, on the sly for a time, and openly thereafter, because under Nature’s pressure, bashfulness becomes a luxury and dignity a difficult art”.81 It is such infringements on the very core of human dignity that are not wholly captured by considering sanitation only as it relates to other human rights. 73 E/C.12/HUN/CO/3 (Hungary), para. 48; E/C.12/1/Add.97 (Greece), para. 44; E/C.12/1/Add.108 (Serbia and Montenegro), para. 57; and E/C.12/MKD/CO/1 (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), para. 43. 74 CEDAW/C/IND/CO/3 (India), para. 29. 75 E/C.12/UKR/CO/5 (Ukraine), para. 49; and CRC/C/15/Add.246 (Angola), para. 59. 76 CERD/C/VEN/CO/18 (Venezuela), para. 17; CEDAW/C/PHI/CO/6 (Philippines), paras. 29-30; CRC/C/15/Add.233 (Panama), para. 64; and CRC/C/KEN/CO/2 (Kenya), para. 69. 77 CEDAW/C/PHI/CO/6 (Philippines), paras. 29-30. 78 CERD/C/DOM/CO/12 (Dominican Republic), para. 18. 79 A/63/175, paras. 53 and 66. 80 For a full legal analysis of sanitation and human rights, see http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/water/iexpert/docs/table_legal_standards.htm. 81 Supreme Court of India, Municipal Council, Ratlam v. Shri Vardhichand and Others, 29 July 1980, (1981) SCR (1) 97.