Good Practices

Book "On the Right Track"
Available in English and French (PDF, 3.29MB)

Catarina de Albuquerque and Prince of Orange (of the Netherlands and Chair of UNSGAB) with her book On the Right Track, Marseilles, 14 March 2012
© OHCHR

The Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, was mandated by the Human Rights Council in 2008 to:

Further clarify the content of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation;
Make recommendations that could help the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and particularly of the Goal 7;
Prepare a compendium of good practices related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

While the work of human rights bodies has often focused on the violations of human rights, the Independent Expert welcomed the opportunity to identify good practices that address the question of how human rights obligations related to sanitation and water are being implemented.

Methodology of the Good Practices consultation process

In a first step, the Independent Expert undertook to determine criteria for identifying ‘good practices’. As ‘good’ is a subjective notion, it seemed critical to first elaborate criteria against which to judge a practice from a human rights perspective, and then apply the same criteria to all practices under consideration. Such criteria for the identification of good practices were discussed with various stakeholders at a workshop convened by the Independent Expert in Lisbon in October 2009. The outcome was the definition of 10 criteria, 5 of which are normative criteria (availability, accessibility, quality/safety, affordability, acceptability), and 5 are cross-cutting ones (non-discrimination, participation, accountability, impact, sustainability,). A progress report on the compilation of good practices, defining the different criteria and outlining the various stakeholders involved, was presented to the Human Rights Council in 2010 and can be found here [E F S A C R]. The Independent Expert and the stakeholders started testing the criteria, but believe that the process of criteria testing is an ongoing one: the criteria should prove their relevance as stakeholders suggest examples of good practices.

After this consultation and the consolidation of the criteria, the Independent Expert wants to use these to identify good practices across all levels and sectors of society. To that end, she will organize stakeholder consultations with governments, civil society organisations, national human rights institutions, development cooperation agencies, the private sector, UN agencies, and perhaps others. By bringing people from the same sector together to talk about good practices related to human rights, water and sanitation, she hopes to facilitate exchange of these good practices. In order to prepare the consultations through the identification of potential good practices, a questionnaire has been elaborated. Based on the answers to the questionnaire, and the stakeholder consultations, the Special Rapporteur presented her compendium of good practices to the Human Rights Council on 15th September 2011. In March 2012 she presented a more detailed book of good practices in realising the rights to water and sanitation, On the Right Track, which discusses the practices in greater detail, and debates some of the more difficult issues. This book is currently available in English and French, and will shortly also be available in Spanish.

Presentations from stakeholder consultations

Responses to the Good Practices Questionnaire

The Special Rapporteur received over 150 responses to her questionnaire, from a range of different stakeholders.

> Stakeholders' responses to the questionnaire