23 Sanitation as a Human Rights: International Law Policy

Jhuma Sen

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Overview: On July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a groundbreaking resolution officially recognizing sanitation – access to, and use of, excreta and wastewater facilities and services – as a human right. United Nations statistics reveal that over 2.5 billion persons lack access to adequate sanitation facilities, a primary cause of water contamination and diseases linked to water. According to UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasso, poor sanitation and water supply result in economic losses estimated at $260 billion annually in developing countries. Sanitation is severely neglected in most countries, by governments and also by the people, in some instances. In many countries, the number of toilets per inhabitant is generally inadequate, with no guarantee that they are hygienic to use. In many parts of the world, the absence of adequate sanitation has led to the widespread pollution of water sources that communities rely on for survival. To take an example, in India, the Yamuna river has been heavily polluted because of release of sewage and other industrial pollutants into the river. Some of the problems faced by children are: malnutrition, lack of physical growth, mental disabilities, intestinal worm infections and other excreta-related diseases. This module shall provide a brief overview of the right to sanitation under International Law and the legal instruments that recognise sanitation as a basic human right.

 

Pre-requisites: No pre requisites are needed to understand this chapter on the right to sanitation under International Law.

Objectives:

  • The main objective of this chapter is to understand the legal instruments that recognise the right to sanitation as a basic human right.
  • This chapter shall also cover as to why access to sanitation facilities is needed.
  • It will also discuss other events dealing with the promotion of sanitation as a human right.

Introduction:

 

The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights defines the right to sanitation as the right of everyone to have access to adequate and safe sanitation that is conducive to the protection of public health and the environment. In simple terms, sanitation can mean the access to, and use of, excreta and wastewater facilities and services that ensure privacy and dignity, ensuring a clean and healthy living environment for all. The United Nations estimates that about 2.5 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation and 1.2 billion practice open defecation. Over a quarter of the world’s population has gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, yet one billion people still resort to open defecation due to lack to sanitation facilities. The Joint Monitoring Programme uses the term “improved sanitation”, referring to types of technology and levels of services that are more likely to be sanitary than unimproved technologies. To be sure, the proportion of the population without adequate provision decreased from 51 per cent in 1990 to around 33 per cent in 2011. East Asia has registered a 40 per cent increase in sanitation coverage.

 

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 7.C. aims to, to halve by 2015 the proportion of people living without access to sanitation. This target remains the most off-track of all the MDG targets. Even if the MDG targets were to be achieved in full, it is important to note that there would still be more than 800 million people without safe drinking water and 1.8 billion people without basic sanitation in 2015. The vast majority – 82 per cent – of people practicing open defecation now live in middle-income, populous countries. Lack of sanitation obstructs the right to life and health. Human excreta encourages the transmission of many infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, and ascariasis. Diarrhea – a disease directly related to poor sanitation – kills one child every 20 seconds, i.e. more than 4,000 children everyday.

This amounts to more deaths than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. It accounts for as many as a quarter of all under-five deaths and is a serious threat to the right to health. Poor sanitation facilities also has a severe effect on water quality and jeopardizes the enjoyment of this right, too. However, water and sanitation do not enjoy the same status under international law. Yet, in many instances and international declarations and commitments, including the Millennium Development Goals, sanitation has been closely associated with the right to water. An increasing number of international, regional and national declarations and national legislations seem are now recognizing sanitation as a self-standing right. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque has expressed her support for the recognition of sanitation as a distinct right.

National Laws:

Given the fact that the International Law is binding on the nations only in good faith, it is highly necessary that the nations enact their own legislations dealing with the right to sanitation. Many countries are beginning to adopt such legislations. Eight countries specifically recognise the right to sanitation in their Constitution, national legislation or in their sanitation policies. These are Uruguay, South Africa, Honduras, Bolivia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Kenya and Sri Lanka. The laws of many countries include specific government obligations to ensure sanitation and hygiene. Examples include Colombia, Ecuador, Iran, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Indonesia, Armenia and Ukraine. The Supreme Courts of India and Bangladesh have held that access to sanitation is part of the right to life.

In 2004, Uruguay became the first country to include an explicit guarantee of the human rights to water and sanitation in its Constitution, stating in Article 47 that: […] Access to clean water and access to sanitation constitute fundamental human rights […]. The following countries make a reference to sanitation in their constitution: Domican Republic, Maldives, Kenya, Ecuador, Zambia, Uruguay, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia.

Sanitation as a Human Right:

Sanitation is an integral part of numerous human rights and has been identified under these rights in various treaties, political declarations, national constitutions and legislation, international and domestic case law, and expert work. These include the rights to an adequate standard of living, adequate housing, health, education, water, work, life, physical security, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, gender equality, and the prohibition against discrimination. There are still 46 countries where less than half the population has access to an improved sanitation facility. This part discusses the Resolutions passed by the United Nations bodies with regards to sanitation.

UNGA Resolution 64/292: In its 64th session on 3 August 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed a Resolution 64/292 which recognised Recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. By a vote of 122 in favour to none against, with 41 abstentions, the General Assembly adopted, the resolution calling on States and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. The delegate for the United States of America and the United Kingdom expressed their concerns about the resolution’s impact on the full enjoyment of human rights. Both these nations, therefore, abstained from the voting process. The Delegate for the United Kingdom warned that if current trends continued, the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation might not be met until 2049.

UNHRC Resolution 15/9: Following the UN General Assembly resolution, Resolution 15/9 was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on 6 October 2010 and this Resolution affirmed the right to water and sanitation and held that these rights are a part of existing international law and confirmed that these rights are legally binding upon States. It also called upon States to develop appropriate tools and mechanisms to achieve progressively the full realization of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, including in currently unserved and underserved areas to develop appropriate tools and mechanisms to achieve progressively the full realization of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, including in currently unserved and underserved areas. This Resolution was adopted without a vote.

Some of the human rights obligations that states have are as follows:

  1. Availability
  2. Quality
  3. Physical accessibility
  4. Affordability
  5. Acceptability

Sanitation for All

 

UNGA A/67/L.75: The ‘Sanitation for All’ Resolution was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in its 67th session on 17 July 2013. Over 100 UN delegations are co-sponsoring the “Sanitation for all” resolution — including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Jamaica and the United Kingdom. The resolution calls for greater attention to be paid to the global sanitation crisis and also recognised 19 November as World Toilet Day. The resolution also urges all UN Member States, as well as the United Nations system, to accelerate progress in order to achieve the MDGs related to sanitation. The resolution also recognizes the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations play in raising awareness of this issue. It also calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, and sewerage and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management. Multi-national companies, international organisations, schools and other stakeholders are encouraged to redouble their efforts, through scaled-up ground-level actions by way of action-oriented and other educational initiatives, to promote greater public awareness of the serious developmental, health and social problems caused by the lack of adequate sanitation.

The Need for Access to Sanitation facilities:

Sanitation is the key infrastructure component which is required to reduce the unacceptably heavy toll of excreta-related disease. Sanitation, more than many other human rights issue, evokes the concept of human dignity, which is guaranteed by most Constitutions around the world. It is the indignity of this situation that causes the embarrassment. In all regions and in almost all countries sanitation provision lags far behind access to water—and there is no evidence that the gap is narrowing. Improved sanitation which ensures separation of waste from human contact is important as open defecation jeopardizes the health of the whole community, resulting in increased diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, as well as worm infestations and hepatitis.

According to a Report, almost 50 per cent of all people in developing countries are suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by a lack of water and sanitation. Given the fact that the right to sanitation facilities has been recognized as a human right, the onus is on the states to ensure that all citizens are able to enjoy this right. The State cannot exempt itself from its human rights obligations by involving non- State actors in service provision. It may take assistance from NGO’s for this task, but irrespective of responsibilities of the latter, the State remains the primary duty-bearer for the realization of human rights.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), access to improved sanitation results in a 32 per cent reduction of diarrhoeal diseases. According to a UNDP Report published in 2006, improved access to sanitation would increase school attendance, especially for girls, and help schoolchildren to learn better. In the African nation of Tanzania, school attendance levels are 12% higher for girls in homes 15 minutes or less from a water source than in homes an hour or more away. On one estimate about half the girls in Sub-Saharan Africa who drop out of primary school do so because of poor water and sanitation facilities. In Uganda, only 8% of schools have sufficient latrines and just one-third have separate latrines for girls—deficits that help to explain why the country has found it difficult to reduce dropout rates among girls after puberty. It is estimated that lack of access to water and sanitation results in 443 million lost school days each year because of water-related illnesses. In addition, girls can be prevented from attending school because of a lack of toilets (or of girls-only toilets).

Addressing issues related to water and sanitation could also have a major effect on the economies of many countries. Treating diarrhea-related diseases costs an estimated 12 per cent of national health budgets in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also compelling evidence that sanitation, as a public health intervention, brings a significant return on investment. Hence, because of the following reasons, it is highly necessary that the Governments put in more efforts to ensure that every citizen enjoys his right to clean water and sanitation facilities. The investment put in such projects, in return, benefits the nations GDP, education system and also improves the hygiene.

International year of Sanitation, 2008:

To put the spotlight on sanitation, the UN General Assembly declared the year 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. The goal was to raise awareness and to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 7.C i.e. to reduce by half the proportion of the 2,6 billion people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. The International Year of Sanitation provides an opportunity to draw attention to the needs of over one-third of global citizens for the most basic of services by promoting five key messages concerning sanitation, and to generate new resources to address the crisis at international, national and community levels.

The five key messages of the International year of Sanitation are as follows:

  • Sanitation is vital for health– The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 88 per cent of diarrhoeal disease is caused by unsafe water and sanitation, leading to the death of  about 1.8 million people annually. Also, people having no or limited access to sanitation, can also develop kidney and liver problems, and constipation, as well as psychological trauma.
  • Sanitation contributes to social development- Where sanitation facilities and hygienic behaviour are present, rates of illness drop, malnutrition in children is reduced, more children, especially girls, attend school and learn better, and women’s safety and dignity are improved.
  • Sanitation is a good economic investment- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that every dollar spent on water and sanitation generates a return of 8 dollars in reduced health costs and increased productivity.
  • Sanitation helps the environment– Lack of sanitation facilities also affects the environment because the sewage is, in most cases, released directly into potable water sources. Improved sanitation facilities can lead to cleaner water sources and also will increase the total drinking water available.
  • Sanitation is achievable- The cost of meeting the Sanitation Goal is estimated to be around US$9.5 billion a year, which is affordable, especially when there is a lot of support provided by other nations and also by bodies such as the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks.

Conclusion:

To conclude, sanitation has been recognized as a basic right in both national & international legal regimes. National legal regimes in a number of jurisdictions have recognized sanitation as a right beginning with Uruguay in the year 2004 when it provided for an explicit protection under the constitution for the right to water and sanitation. Many countries followed the suit. Further, international legal instruments provide for sanitation as a right as well. Key UNGA and UNHRC resolutions along with some key treaties recognize sanitation and water as a human right. The Millennium Development Goals formalized the adoption of sanitation as a right in the broader policy framework.

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Reference

  1. Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2014 Update, UNICEF and WHO, available at http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP_report_2014_webEng.pdf
  2. The Right to Sanitation, see http://www.righttowater.info/progress-so-far/the-right-to-sanitation/
  3. The Need for Sanitation, p. 1. See http://www.efm.leeds.ac.uk/CIVE/Sewerage/manual/pdf/chap1.pdf
  4. Report of the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, Human Rights Council, Twelfth session A/HRC/12/24, 1 July 2009, p.18
  5. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis, Human Development Report 2006, p. 36, available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR06-complete.pdf.
  6. R. Lenton, A.M. Wright, and K. Lewis, Health, Dignity and Development: what will it take? UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation, p. 18, available at http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/WaterComplete-lowres.pdf., p. 20
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  10. According to UNICEF “Many girls drop out of school at the onset of menstruation, which makes them particularly vulnerable when there are no separate toilets.” See The State of the World’s Children, 1999, Education, p. 52, available at http://www.unicef.org/sowc99/sowc99e.pdf
  11. UN-Water, Factsheet: Sanitation generates economic benefits, available at: http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/2%20fact-sheet_economic%20benefits.pdf.
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