Tag: Rights

What I’ve learned in 10 years of working to make water, sanitation and hygiene inclusive

by Louisa Gosling on 3 December 2021 on WaterAid WASHmatters, originally a keynote speech at the 42nd WEDC Conference

Are we doing enough to make water, sanitation and hygiene services as inclusive as possible? Louisa Gosling shares her reflections on how far we have come, and what else we need to achieve.

I started working on equality, inclusion and rights in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in 2011. The challenge then, as it is now, was to do three things:

  • To raise awareness of inequalities and exclusion by encouraging people working on WASH to think about the different needs of different people and understand the barriers they face.
  • To develop the skills and confidence of WASH professionals.
  • To get WASH professionals to recognise the limits of their expertise so that they reach out to others who can help find solutions.
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Update from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

Hello all,

After what has been a prolonged period of absence for some members of the “friends list” to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, I would like to touch base with you and renew my commitment to maintaining meaningful contact. As much time has passed, there is naturally a lot that could be shared. I will attempt to be selective and keep to key subjects that could be of your particular interest.

  1.     Recognition of human rights to water and sanitation

Firstly, the attentive among you may have recognized the change in my title. The General Assembly http://bit.ly/2drEiWH recognized the human rights to water and sanitation (plural) late last year in Resolution A/RES/70/169. More recently, the Human Rights Council also recognized the distinct rights in a new resolution http://bit.ly/2dPyVeY , meaning that my title has also changed accordingly to reflect the distinct rights. This is news to celebrate as I, like others http://bit.ly/2drFlpu , believe in the legal foundation and benefit of recognizing water and sanitation as two distinct but integrated rights.

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