PSI and its affiliates actively support the human
right to water initiatives, including the current lobbying pressure on national
governments negotiating policies and priorities in the United Nations.
621 Civil Society Organizations including PSI and its
affiliates call on Member States to name the human right to water and
sanitation in the political Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
United Nations Member States have explicitly
recognized water and sanitation as a human right.
Yet the human right to water and sanitation remains unmet for hundreds of
millions of people. According to a UNICEF and WHO study, at least 1.8 billion
people drink fecally contaminated water. In addition, 2.5 billion remain
without access to basic sanitation.
Member States have committed to deliver a Post-2015
Development Agenda that is truly transformative, people-centered, and focused
on the most marginalized. To make good on those commitments, safeguarding the
human right to water and sanitation is essential. This crosscutting issue will
affect the realization of a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals, from
education to poverty eradication to empowerment of women and girls.
We commend Member States for naming the human right to
water in the Chapeau of the outcome document of
the Open Working Group. Now, the human right to water and sanitation must be
included in the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We renew the
earlier call of nearly 300 organizations of the global
water justice movement to ensure that the human right to water and sanitation
be made explicit and realized in the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Placing the human right to water and sanitation in the
Declaration gives it needed political recognition and prominence. It ensures
that this human right will not be ignored or undermined in the critical
Post-2015 Development Agenda.
For more information:
·
Letter sent to all
UN Ambassadors and Missions, relevant UN Agencies, the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right
to safe drinking water and sanitation (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese)
Public
Services International is a global trade union federation representing 20 million working
women and men who deliver vital public services in 150 countries. PSI champions
human rights, advocates for social justice and promotes universal access to
quality public services. PSI works with the United Nations system and in
partnership with labour, civil society and other organisations.
