Does it Matter: Constitutionalisation, Democratic Governance, and the Human Right to Water

Water is an essential necessity for human beings; however, South Africa has a long history of inequalities dating back to apartheid politics and legislation which denied access to water to disadvantaged black populations mostly residing in rural areas. Although apartheid has officially ended, whether the lack of access to water by such populations who still cannot afford it exists and aligns with international human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination merits an examination. To redress the injustices of the apartheid regime, the right to have access to sufficient water is entrenched in section 27(1)(b) of the 1996 South African Constitution. In addition to embracing equality and non-discrimination, the Constitution informs other instruments and measures such as free basic water policy and pre-paid meters meant to ensure access to water. However, the plight of these populations persists in post-apartheid South Africa, but it is rarely a subject of academic scrutiny how the notion of affirmative action as grounded in the principles of equality and non-discrimination under human rights law can be deployed as a response. Using a doctrinal research approach, this article argues that the continuing struggle of disadvantaged communities with access to water does not only constitute water apartheid, it negates the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination. The principle of affirmative action is useful in responding to inadequate access to sufficient water by disadvantaged populations in post-apartheid South Africa.

Section: Applying Affirmative Action As a Response To Lack Of Access To Sufficient Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Water ‘Apartheid’ and the Significance of Human Rights Principles of Affirmative Action in South Africa

Jegede

Shikwambane

2021

“…For example, after the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation, which recognized a right to sanitation, civil society organizations successfully lobbied governments to make more significant policy and funding commitments and to prioritize vulnerable and marginalized groups. In the case of Nepal, for example, a new Master Plan for Sanitation and Hygiene increased the sanitation budget almost twofold [48]. Third, international development officials have indicated the symbolic power of right to sanitation.…”

Section: Impact Of Human Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Determinants of Access to Sanitation: The Role of Human Rights and the Challenges of Measurement

Schiel

Wilson

Langford

2021

Self Cite

Ten years after the United Nation’s recognition of the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS), little is understood about how these right impacts access to sanitation. There is limited identification of the mechanisms responsible for improvements in sanitation, including the international and constitutional recognition of rights to sanitation and water. We examine a core reason for the lack of progress in this field: data quality. Examining data availability and quality on measures of access to sanitation, we arrive at three findings: (1) where data are widely available, measures are not in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, revealing little about changes in sanitation access; (2) data concerning safe sanitation are missing in more country-year observations than not; and (3) data are missing in the largest proportions from the poorest states and those most in need of progress on sanitation. Nonetheless, we present two regression analyses to determine what effect rights recognition has on improvements in sanitation access. First, the available data are too limited to analyze progress toward meeting SDGs related to sanitation globally, and especially in regions most urgently needing improvements. Second, utilizing more widely available data, we find that rights seem to have little impact on access.

“…With the creation of the HRtWS, scholars began to examine related but divergent aspects of water and sanitation including the relationship between water and health [28], water and food; water scarcity and conflict between agriculture, industry, and human consumption; water and corruption [29]; water and the environment; indigenous peoples' rights to prior consent; water and development including mega projects such as dam construction [30]; and environmental rights and the legal rights of rivers [31]; infrastructure [32][33][34]. Other studies pivot in a different direction to focus on hydrology, water treatment, water management [35] or on the politics and policy of water and sanitation access [27,36]. Because water is so central to all areas of life, economy, and environment, the academic literature on water and sanitation rights has taken many different directions.…”

Section: The Human Right To Water and Sanitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Right to Water and Sanitation: Using Natural Language Processing to Uncover Patterns in Academic Publishing

Faulkner

Lambert

Wilson

et al. 2021

Self Cite

After years of advocacy and international negotiation, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to officially recognize a stand-alone human right to water and sanitation on 28 July 2010. Since, academic scholarship has continued to grow in an effort to understand the implications of the codification of this human right. Yet, with this growth, it has become impractical if not impossible for scholars to keep up with the advancement of academic knowledge or to make sense of it in a systematic way. In short, to date, we know very little about the trends in the literature as they have unfolded over the past thirty years and the topics to which scholars have devoted significant attention within the broader field, particularly over time. This is an important area of inquiry, as developing a comprehensive understanding of where prior literature has focused and where it appears to be going offers scholars an opportunity to identify areas in need of refinement and/or increased attention. Given the practicalities of reading thousands of research papers each year, this project utilizes natural language processing (NLP) to identify topics and trends in academic literature on the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS). NLP provides the opportunity to digest large quantities of text data through machine learning, culminating with descriptive information on trends and topics in the field since 1990. The results of this exercise show that the research related to the human right to water and sanitation has grown exponentially, particularly over the last decade, illustrates the multidisciplinary nature of the literature, and demonstrates the diversity of topics in the field.