Webinar 24th Feb, 11:00h-12:30h CET
National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) have a duty to protect, respect and fulfil human rights, and they work as an independent institution according to the Paris Principles and usually funded by their national government. NHRIs have varying mandates and organisational structures, but they form a critical link between government and civil society to address the ‘protection’ gap between the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of states. As such, the overriding responsibilities of NHRIs are to address discrimination in all its forms, and to promote the protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
While all human rights are equally important, we would like to concentrate on the rights to water and sanitation for this webinar. These rights were only relatively recently recognised by the UN General Assembly in 2010. There is a steep learning curve for the realisation of these rights, as identified by the 10% of the global population still without improved access to drinking water and the 50% of the world without safely managed sanitation.
Human Right 2 Water and End Water Poverty have highlighted the role that NHRIs can provide in water governance through a new publication which collects good practices from a selection of countries. This compilation selects areas of activity where NHRIs can demonstrably provide value, through promotion and protection of these rights and educational programmes; monitoring access to services and complaints procedures; and by acting as a body that presents violations to government and making recommendations on legislative reform.
We will present some of the case studies that were identified in our good practice’s compilation. Leaders from these NHRIs are invited to share their stories of achieving these outcomes as an inspiration for other NHRIs, and as a source of knowledge for people that are not fully aware of the services that NHRIs can provide. We also include speakers from the same countries that are working with vulnerable people in water and sanitation provision, to provide a local perspective.
