“Considering water as a commodity or a business opportunity will leave behind those who cannot access or afford market prices”, several UN human rights experts* have assured in a statement issued a day before the start of the Water Conference 2023 In New York.
For the rapporteurs, the commodification of water will disrupt the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including number 6, dedicated to universal access to clean water and sanitation.
Besides, “hamper efforts to solve the global water crisisalready aggravated by the triple planetary crisis: climate change, the loss of nature and biodiversity, and toxic pollution, which affects the lives and health of billions of people around the world”.
Experts note that, as mentioned in a recent open letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to member states, the Water Conference is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to address the root causes of this crisis that currently affects 2 billion people without guaranteed access to drinking water and more than 4 billion without basic sanitation.
“Our hope is that the Conference on Water is the beginning of a genuine and long-term collaboration to accelerate the implementation of Goal number 6 and promote and protect human rights,” they said.
interdependence of rights
Experts have also stated that Human rights and the right to water and sanitation are indivisible and interdependent, and vital to achieving an adequate standard of living.
“Whether it is the physical safety of women and girls, discrimination against indigenous peoples, peasants or minorities, or the human rights to health, to adequate housing, to a clean, healthy environment and sustainable, to education and many others, all are closely related to water and sanitation”, they explain.
For the first time in almost 50 years, the United Nations convenes a three-day conference in New York to discuss the global water situation and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals that are part of the 2030 Agenda.
“We welcome the efforts of the UN, States, rights holders and other stakeholders from around the world to come together in New York and advance the global water agenda,” they say.
However, progress on Goal number 6, “can only happen effectively if communities and their human rights are at the center of discussionsespecially listening to the voices of those who suffer discrimination, marginalization, poverty and situations of vulnerability”.
enough technocracy
For experts, the Conference is an opportunity to listen and engage with human rights defendersin particular water rights defenders, and other rights holders.
“Instead of restricting the freedom of expression and association of human rights and water rights defenders, and even criminalizing them, it is time to ensure their meaningful participation, especially for women and young human rights defenders, in all debates and in any outcomes and mechanisms of water governance at the international, national and local levels”.
In this context, they have explained, they need robust public access to information frameworks to promote transparency, participation and accountability.
Experts have called for end a technocratic approach to water and take into account “the ideas, knowledge and solutions of indigenous peoples, peasants and local communities who understand local aquatic ecosystems to ensure the sustainability of the 2030 agenda”.
*The experts: Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, special rapporteur on the human rights to drinking water and sanitation; Marcos Orellana, special rapporteur on toxic substances and human rights; Olivier De Schutter, special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; David R. Boyd, special rapporteur on human rights and the environment; Ian Fry, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; José Francisco Cali Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Balakrishan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression; Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Elizabeth Broderick, Ivana Radačić, Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.
The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent investigative and follow-up mechanisms that deal with specific situations of pcountries or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organizationtion and provide their services individually.
