Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
OHCHR, as the leading UN entity on human rights, is mandated to promote and protect the enjoyment and full realization, by all people, of all rights established in the Charter of the UN and in international human rights laws and treaties, including the human rights to water and sanitation.
The work of OHCHR includes monitoring and preventing violations of human rights to water and sanitation, developing thematic research and advocacy, and promoting a human rights-based approach to water and sanitation in cooperation with Member States, the UN system, national human rights institutions and civil society.
OHCHR, as the secretariat of the Human Rights Council and treaty bodies, provides secretariat support to the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, which is an independent mandate established under the Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures mechanism, as well as to the work of relevant treaty bodies related to water and sanitation.
Human rights framework
Contribution to the global indicators discussions with inputs from the human rights indicators framework.
10 years of the human rights to water and sanitation UN-Water 2020 marks the tenth year since the UN General Assembly adopted resolution explicitly recognizing the human rights to water and sanitation. Throughout 2020, Léo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation is org … Read more
Extension: 3rd Human Rights Youth Challenge UN-Water Third Human Rights Youth Challenge focuses on Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation Sector. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation is organizing the Third Human Rights Youth Challenge and in … Read more
Side-event on ‘Climate-resilient water management approaches’ at COP25 UN-Water On 10 December 2019, the UN-Water Expert Group on Water and Climate, organised the side event “Climate-resilient Water Management Approaches” at the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP2 … Read more
World Toilet Day statement of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation UN-Water In relation to the World Toilet Day 2019, Mr. Léo Heller, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation has issues a statement. Statement issued … Read more
World Toilet Day 2019: ‘Leaving no one behind’ UN-Water Today, 4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation, 673 million still practise open defecation and three billion lack basic handwashing facilities.[1] This sanitation crisis means untreated human waste is spreading diseases into w … Read more
