Seminar on "good sanitation practices in relation to human rights"

A seminar on Human Rights and WatSan was held in Geneva the 13-14 September 2010. The "good practices of WatSan" have been presented and discussed.

During the semiar on Human Rights and WatSan, "good practices of WatSan" have been presented. The following five normative criteria were identified and discussed: availability, accessibility, quality/safety, affordability and acceptability; as well as five cross-cutting criteria: non-discrimination, participation, accountability, impact and sustainability. To qualify as a good practice none of the criteria should be undermined and the practice should show specific strengths in at least one of the normative criteria and fulfilling all of the cross-cutting ones.

Various presentations were held during the semiar which all shall be part of a "good practices compendium", the final product of the seminar. Mentionable is the presentation on the "Productive sanitation approach and the experience in Burkina Faso and Niger" by Catherine Nana (CREPA, Burkina Faso) and Linus Dagerskog (ESR2 Program/SEI, Sweden) which put the audience´s attention to the link between sanitation and the right to water and food.

Positive Note:
The Human Rights Council declared that water and sanitation is an integral part of "the right to an adequate standard of living" on 1 October 2010. This means that access to water and sanitation is contained in the human right treaties. Further information can be found <<here>>.

It is hard to say now what kind of impact this human rights aspect really will have on the sector, but it gives for sure another good argument to increase attention and priority on the sanitation sector.

A flyer of the independant expert on the HR/WatSan issue can be downloaded <<here>>.

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