Sanitation: a human rights imperative

December 10, 2008: Human Rights Day

Today, on Human Rights Day and the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly, WaterAid urges for sanitation to be recognized as a basic right.

ALL people have the right to a healthy life and a life with dignity. In other words: everyone has the right to sanitation.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the international legal framework recognizing the dignity and equality of all persons. They are basic rights that belong to all people regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and without which people cannot live in dignity.

While making a significant contribution to human development, 60 years on from the declaration millions of people around the world still live in abject poverty.

In 2002, WaterAid and others successfully lobbied the UN for recognition of the right to water.  The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a statement that “the right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival.”

It is vital that sanitation is also recognized as a human right.   WaterAid will continue to lobby for the right to have a safe and clean place to go to the toilet.

Currently 2.5 billion people live without adequate sanitation.  The result is widespread diarrheal diseases that kill 5,000 children a day, and hold back economic development by keeping adults out of work and children out of school. 

The resulting economic cost to individuals and to governments of ill-health and under-education is at least nine times greater than the cost of addressing this problem.

And, as Prince Willem Alexander of the Netherlands, Chair of the UN Secretary General Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, commented: "Clean water and sanitation are not only about hygiene and disease, they're about dignity, too. [E]veryone, and that means ALL the people in the world, has the right to a healthy life and a life with dignity. In other words: everyone has the right to sanitation."

Find out more about why sanitation is a serious human rights issue in WaterAid's joint publication with COHRE and UN-HABITAT, Sanitation: a human rights imperative (PDF 1.6MB).