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.
World Toilet Day, 19 November, celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. Worl … Read more
In a virtual workshop hosted this week by OHCHR, various UN-Water Members and Partners discussed the development of a roadmap to strengthen the integration of the human rights to water and sanitation in UN-Water’s work. Under OHCHR’s leadership, the forthcoming UN-Water Roadmap on the Human Rights t … Read more
The 2021 edition of World Water Week will be held as a full-scale digital event on 23-27 August, on the theme Building Resilience Faster. During the week, UN-Water will convene various sessions. Presenting the 2021 global status of water and sanitation Date and Time: Monday 23 August | 17:00- … Read more
Even before COVID-19 struck, progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 was alarmingly off track. According to the latest UN report, the current rate of progress on achieving water and sanitation for all will have to quadruple to meet the 2030 deadline. On Friday, 9 July 2021, a virtual SDG 6 … Read more
The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation is organizing the Fourth Human Rights Youth Challenge and invites youth aged between 16 – 24 to produce and submit a 2-5 minute video on the “impact of climate change on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanit … Read more
