A/HRC/15/55* United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 22 July 2010 Original: English only Human Rights Council Fifteenth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Joint report of the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Cardona, and the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque Addendum Mission to Bangladesh (3–10 December 2009) Summary From 3 to 10 December 2009, the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty and the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation undertook an official country mission to Bangladesh. Their mission focused on the human rights situation of people living in extreme poverty, the enjoyment of the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the intersection between these topics. Special attention was paid to groups particularly vulnerable to poverty and lack of access to sanitation and water, including women, children, persons with disabilities, minority groups, refugees and people living in urban slums. In the report, the independent expert on water and sanitation highlights the problems relating to sanitation, water quality and availability, and menstrual hygiene. The independent expert on extreme poverty focuses on social protection programmes for education, women, older persons, emergency relief and decent work, and points out the challenges to the effective implementation of these programmes. * Reissued for technical reasons. GE.10-15451 (E) 170810