Purpose of the mandate
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation was established to:
- focus on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation;
- carry out thematic research;
- undertake country missions;
- collect good practices; and
- work with development practitioners on the implementation of the rights to water and sanitation.
Learn more about water and sanitation as a human rights issue.
About the mandate
The mandate was formalized in Human Rights Council resolution 7/22 in 2008, and most recently renewed in Human Rights Council resolution 45/8.
Learn more about the history of the mandate.
About the Special Rapporteur
Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo is the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. He was appointed by the Human Rights Council in September 2020 and started his mandate on 1 November 2020. From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Arrojo-Agudo served as an elected member of the Spanish Parliament. He was Professor in the Area of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of Zaragoza from 1989 to 2011, and has been professor emeritus since 2011. During the last three decades, he has focused his research on economics and water management, publishing his work in more than 100 scientific articles and in 70 books.
Read Pedro Arrojo-Agudo’s full biography.
Latest thematic reports
Privatization and the human rights to water and sanitation: In his report presented to the General Assembly in 2020, the Special Rapporteur explores the provision of water and sanitation services by private companies, whose operations have come to affect a significant amount of the global population. View
report page | View
document A/75/208
Progressive realization of the human right to water and sanitation: A decade has passed since water and sanitation has been explicitly recognized as a human right, yet the specifics of how to implement those human rights still require further clarification. In this report, the Special Rapporteur examines the nature of the obligation of progressive realization. View report page | View
document A/HRC/45/10
