Translating the Human Right to Water and Sanitation into Public Policy Reform

Abstract

The development of a human right to water and sanitation under international law has created an imperative to implement human rights in water and sanitation policy. Through forty-three interviews with informants in international institutions, national governments, and non-governmental organizations, this research examines interpretations of this new human right in global governance, national policy, and local practice. Exploring obstacles to the implementation of rights-based water and sanitation policy, the authors analyze the limitations of translating international human rights into local water and sanitation practice, concluding that system operators, utilities, and management boards remain largely unaffected by the changing public policy landscape for human rights realization. To understand the relevance of human rights standards to water and sanitation practitioners, this article frames a research agenda to ensure that human rights aspirations lead to public policy reforms and public health outcomes.

Realizing the Right to Sanitation in Deprived Urban Communities: Meeting the Challenges of Collective Action, Coproduction, Affordability, and Housing Tenure

“…Within the international water and sanitation sector, there has been a tendency to interpret the rights to water and sanitation through legal lenses, and to argue, for example, that "a rights-based approach to water and sanitation offers international legal standards by which to assess obligations, shifting the consideration of rights from moral responsibility to legal accountability" (Meier et al, 2014). It is relatively easy to envisage how such a narrow rights-based approach could be used to support the connection of low-income households to expanding urban sewer networks.…”

Human Rights and the Challenges of Science and Technology

“…If there is a continuing trend, exemplified by the right to water as presented by Meier, et al (2014 ) and Hall et al (2013), to develop new or derivative human rights in a wide range of scientific and technological fields, the engagement of scientists and engineers, in partnership with human rights specialists, will be essential to translate normative pronouncements into "enhanced opportunities for rights-based ... policy" and "actual interventions" (Hall et al, 2013). This special section of Science and Engineering Ethics on technology, engineering and human rights is a good beginning.…”

Strengthening the Human Right to Sanitation as an Instrument for Inclusive Development

“…In the governance literature, drivers have been analysed in the context of internalising the HRS by local actors, including system operators, utilities, and management boards who are directly involved in service provision but least connected to the international human rights debate (Meier et al, 2014 (Obani & Gupta, 2016b). The analysis is however often limited to considering drivers as a justification for the human rights approach to sanitation without further assessment of the performance of HRS instruments in addressing the drivers.…”

“…The non-legal literature critiques the narrow formulation of the HRW which affects the realisation of HRS norms especially for people relying on various wet sanitation systems (Joshi et al, 2011;Hall, van Koppen & van Houweling, 2014); analyses the central role of knowledge in the re-production of the urban waterscape, including wastewater (for instance, Bakker, 2003;Castro, 2004;Kaika, 2003;Karpouzoglou & Zimmer, 2016;Swyngedouw, Kaïka & Castro, 2002); assesses sanitation governance processes and the motivations and accountability of key actors (Abeysuriya, Mitchell & White, 2007;Giles, 2012;Meier et al, 2014), even using human rights standards (Galvin, 2015); and proffers quantitative and qualitative indicators for measuring access levels (Bain et al, 2014;Baum et al, 2013;Ensink, et al, 2008;Ensink et al, 2015;Irish et al, 2013;Kvarnström et al, 2011). The nonlegal literature however does not sufficiently address the HRS norms beyond a cursory consideration at best but has instead focused largely on the technological and economic aspects of sanitation services (Obani & Gupta, 2016 analyses the coverage of the HRS in the legal and non-legal literature in detail).…”

“…Gleick, 1998;McCaffrey, 1992;Kiefer & Brölmann, 2005). Similarly, the HRS is equally essential for the attainment of relevant ICESCR rights (Ellis & Feris, 2014;Meier et al, 2014; Prior to the 2015 UNGA Resolution, the HRS evolved through UN human rights mechanisms like the Sub-Commission on Human Rights, while also being considered in relation to other rights as illustrated in Table 5.2 Winkler, 2016 …”