The Human Rights Council has requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to study the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments. The decision (A/HRC/2/L.3/Rev.3) was adopted without a vote at the second session of the Human Rights Council on 27 November 2006. This study will be submitted prior to the sixth session of the Council in September 2007.

Shortly before the Council’s session, Danielle Mitterrand's Association France Libertés hosted an International forum on the right to water on 23-25 November 2006 in Marseille [1]. The meeting called for:

• free access for everyone to a minimum of 40 litres of quality water per day;
• 1% of the current military expenditures to be spent on water distribution and sanitation services;
• the new UN Secretary General to organise water governance to ensure the public interest of all, and not only that of private actors;
• the Human Rights Council to give priority to water as a human right, and;
• international financial institutions (IFI’s) to invest in public initiatives and not in private water corporations.

[1] France Libertés - Rencontres Internationales pour le Droit d’Accès à l’Eau

Related news: Sector reform: UK recognises right to water, launches Global Action Plan, Source Weekly, 7 Dec 2006 ; France: senate adopts right to water, Source Weekly, 11 Oct 2006

Web site: WWC – Right to water

Contact: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOG-OHCHR), Switzerland, InfoDesk@ohchr.org ; France Libertés, contact page - http://www.france-libertes.fr/contact.php

Source: U.N., 27 Nov 2006 ; PSI, Nov 2006

Tags: financing, policies & legislation