A/HRC/45/10 established, addressing specificities in areas such as informal settlements and hard-to-reach populations by taking into account demographic, geographic and institutional elements. 11 15. The horizontal approach implies a wide range of elements or baselines that States should take into account in making decisions. To identify those steps towards equal access, the Special Rapporteur recommends that States take into account the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental context in assessing the best strategy from a human rights perspective. Specifically: (a) What groups and areas have been left behind and do not have adequate access to water and sanitation? What inequalities have emerged related to access? Are the water and sanitation services actively contributing to reducing inequalities? What steps are being taken to address these inequalities and discrimination through national policies, programmes and other decision-making processes? (b) What are the relevant social, economic, political, cultural and environmental elements that affect the extent to which different types of services comply with human rights? Do these elements inform policies and plans? (c) In what ways are the human rights to water and sanitation integrated into the choice of water and sanitation services, so as to ensure that the services are available, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable to all and that they uphold privacy and dignity? (d) Have the current water and sanitation services been established with the free, prior and informed consent and with active, free and meaningful participation? (e) Does the population using the service have access to information regarding the management and costs of the services, and how the services were chosen? (f) How are the services being monitored? Are all relevant actors held to account for any violations of the human rights to water and sanitation? 16. Following an assessment, States should identify ways to address the questions and to continuously and progressively fulfil the human rights to water and sanitation. In doing so, States should use the concept of maximum of available resources as an operational guideline. III. Maximum of available resources 17. While many elements of economic, social and cultural rights can be realized without significant resources, full realization is contingent on the availability of resources to implement those rights. Therefore, States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are obliged to utilize the maximum of available resources to meet their obligations. In the context of water and sanitation, using the maximum of available resources is important, as achieving universal coverage of human rights-compliant services may be constrained by limited resources. 18. The concept of maximum available resources operates as a qualifier of how States are fulfilling the obligation to progressively realize economic, social and cultural rights. It qualifies both why a State has failed to meet that obligation and how States should progressively realize them. Firstly, limited available resources may constitute constraints to the progressive realization of rights, particularly for developing States. Secondly, the concept functions as a framework and a methodology for States to operationalize and implement the obligation of progressive realization. This affords States some level of flexibility, which in turn creates a need to clarify implementation standards and to provide a clearer interpretation of several aspects of what is meant by “maximum of available resources”. 11 Submission from Colombia. 5