This event is co-organized with the Centre For Community Health Research (CCHR), Human Right2Water, Switzerland; AOSED (An Organization for Socio-Economic Development ), Bangladesh; WHEC (Women’s Health and Education Center), USA; Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB), Malaysia; Malayala Manorama National Daily, India; FANSA (Fresh Water Action Network South Asia-Kerala), India.; CeTAmb (Research Center on Appropriate Technologies For Environmental Management In Resource Limited Countries), University of Brescia, Italy.
“Children reported to be powerful agents of change not only in their homes but also in the community.” Human Right 2 Water is co-hosting with CCHR The Scaling Up of Right to Children on WASH in Schools side event. This event will be moderated by our CEO, Amanda Loeffen, and it will focus on the ways in which we can try to uphold the constitutional right to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities that children have. This side event will take place on March 23rd from 12:30 to 13:45 EST in Conference Room B at the United Nations Head Quarters in New York.
The event will be opened by Rio Hada, Office of High Commission of Human Rights, providing some recommendations or ideas for how to encourage integration into law and policy. He will be followed by our special guest speaker, Leo Heller, the previous Special Rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation.
Watch their intervention here.
The event will consist of two parts, first, a 15-minute presentation from two experts on WASH, Upasana Chauhan, UN Representative at Manup Campaign, and Priyanka Shendage from UNICEF. These presentations will be accompanied by interactive videos provided by Ms. Riya Mary and Mr. George Thomas (see videos below). Then, there will be a 35-minute moderated panel discussion with Ms. Bhumi Sharma from the United International Federation of Youth (UN1FY), Ziadath Achimi from ECEaFem: Woman for Water Climate and Environment, Odwa Ntsika Mtembu, from World Merit SA and our youth representative from South Africa, Noemie Plumier from Human Right 2 Water and our youth representative from France, and Gabriela Calderon from UNESCO Groundwater Youth Network and Grupo Aguas from the National University of Mar del Plata.
Rio Hada from the OHCHR at the side-event
The main objective of the proposed Side Event is to scale up worldwide the Constitutional amendment of “Right to Children” under the purview of Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in India that ensures all schools in the country must have adequate safe drinking water, sanitation facilities including separate toilets for boys and girls; and facilities for hygiene especially menstrual hygiene management ( MHM) for adolescent girls. The programme on WASH in Schools (WinS) has profound impact on the learning interest of children, especially girls. Girls are reluctant to go to schools due to lack of appropriate toilet and hand washing facilities and consequently become vulnerable to drop out of schools. The proposed side event is also focused on the voluntary commitment published by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs under WATER ACTION AGENDA entitled “Children are agents of change- an intervention in Kerala (India) on WASH in Schools”.
You can find the full commitment here.
Find the summary made by Steven Setiawan here.
Presentations: Case Studies of Climate Empowerment and WHEC’s Written Statement
