It works towards a “world where there is sustainable use and access to safe water and sanitation for all”, with the aim “to secure the human rights to water and sanitation through law and policy reform.” It has “UN ECOSOC and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) consultative status, and UN Water and Global Water Partnership (GWP) Partner status. It is a member of the UNECE expert group on equitable access to safe drinking water and of the UNDP Global Water Solidarity.”
Activities:
- Research – Legal and policy research that aims “to better understand water, sanitation and water governance at the international, national and local levels. National level research on water law and policy frameworks for human rights compliance to support programmes on water and sanitation governance.”
- Capacity – “Raising awareness on the human right to water and sanitation and increasing capacity of SDG 6 stakeholders and implementers is fundamental to our work. Building on the gaps identified in WaterLex research to share knowledge, build skills and develop tools to enhance awareness and address tailored needs of governments, National Human Rights Institutions, sector stakeholders, and civil society organisations.”
- Catalyst – Tries to be a “catalyst for change in sustainable water governance and management through multi-stakeholder engagement and partnerships. Working to influence and effect change at the national, regional and international levels through dialogue, advocacy and multi-stakeholder consultative processes.”
- Reform – Aims to improve ” legal and policy frameworks in line with the human rights to water and sanitation. This reform can also be realised through changes in mechanisms and processes to bolster the mandates of independent public monitoring bodies and the capabilities of statistics bureaus to capture disaggregated data.”
- Accountability – Supports the “enforcement of decision-making and WASH service delivery regulation procedures through clearly defined duties and responsibilities. This captures the definition and implementation of human-rights sensitive indicators to assist monitoring institutions.”
Topics:
Publications:
- A library of reports, background papers, case studies, score-cards, etc.
- WaterLex Legal Database
- Country Mappings
