Follow-up analysis of official country visits

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Introduction

The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Mr. Léo Heller, has conducted two official country visits per year to examine the situation of the realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. The Special Rapporteur is seeking to enhance the effectiveness of his country visit by undertaking a follow-up analysis focused on the implementation of recommendations elaborated in the country visit reports.

Scope of the follow-up analysis project

In the first half of 2018, the Special Rapporteur commenced the follow-up analysis of the first five official country visits undertaken since 2015, namely, Botswana, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal, and Tajikistan.

The Special Rapporteur intends to continue the follow-up analysis of all the official country visits undertaken by him as well as those undertaken by the former Special Rapporteur. In 2019, he will focus on the follow-up analysis to India and Mongolia and visits undertaken by the former Special Rapporteur, the latter focusing particularly on those countries that will be reviewed by relevant treaty monitoring bodies or under the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council in 2019 and 2020.

Methodology

At the initial stage of the follow-up analysis project, the Special Rapporteur has undertaken research on the recent developments related to the recommendations elaborated in his official country visit reports. This preliminary analysis firstly involves a mapping exercise of the recommendations and key issues mentioned in the body of each country visit report, aiming to identify particular and cross-cutting issues of relevance to the human rights to water and sanitation in the country. Secondly, based mainly on the issues addressed in the recommendations, but not limited to those issues, desktop research is carried out to obtain information on the new developments particularly related to the implementation of the recommendation since the Special Rapporteur’s visit.

The structure of the preliminary analysis is composed of: (1) issues and information identified in the report, (2) corresponding recommendation(s) of the Special Rapporteur and (3) information on relevant developments.

The primary source of information for the preliminary analysis is official sources from Governments or international organizations. In particular, the Special Rapporteur consulted reports submitted and issued in the context of international treaty monitoring processes and the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council. He also consulted official information from national legislative, regulatory other governmental bodies to identify any recent developments on legislative, policy and regulatory measures related to the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. Finally, he examined reports from international cooperation partners and from international organizations that have a presence or activities in the country in question.

Consultation process: questionnaire to Government and other stakeholders

Follow-up to reports is of central importance to the cooperation and dialogue between the Special Rapporteur and States. For this purpose, the Special Rapporteur uses a questionnaire as a tool to obtain the information necessary to assess the status of implementation of the recommendations. The Special Rapporteur sent a questionnaire to each Government and he invited the civil society and other stakeholders to contribute to this follow-up analysis by submitting a written response to the specific questionnaire.

Questionnaires sent and responses received as well as information on the follow-up visit of five countries can be found below.

Analysis

The Special Rapporteur is currently analysing all relevant information related to the recommendations elaborated in his country visit reports with the aim of providing an assessment on the status of implementation of the recommendations.

The final analysis will identify each recommendation under the following categories: “Fully implemented”, “Partially implemented/Implementation in Progress” or “Implementation not yet initiated”. The analysis of each recommendation will include a summary of the assessment, describing the elements that the Special Rapporteur based to identify the status of the implementation of each recommendation.