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The Right to Water
Win! UN General Assembly passes historic Human Right to Water and Sanitation resolution
 On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly agreed to a resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” The resolution, presented by the Bolivian government, had 122 countries vote in its favour, while 41 countries – including Canada – abstained.
For more than a decade the water justice movement, including the Council of Canadians' Blue Planet Project, has been calling for UN leadership on this critical issue. Right now nearly 2 billion people live in water-stressed areas of the world and 3 billion have no running water within a kilometre of their homes. Every eight seconds, a child dies of water-borne disease – deaths that would be easily preventable with access to clean, safe water.
“This is truly an historic day,” said Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians who was at the UN meeting for the vote. ”When the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights was written, no one could foresee a day when water would be a contested area. But in 2010, it is not an exaggeration to say that the lack of access to clean water is the greatest human rights violation in the world.” Barlow was joined for the important vote by the Council of Canadians’ National Water Campaigner Meera Karunananthan and Blue Planet project Organizer Anil Naidoo.
What you can do:
Publications:
- Our Right to Water: A People’s Guide to Implementing the United Nations’ Recognition of the Right to Water and Sanitation, Maude Barlow, The Council of Canadians, June 2011 (1.35 MB) (français) (español)
- Moving from Recognition to Realization: Botswana court upholds Kalahari Bushmen’s right to water, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2011
- Right to Water Resolution a Resounding Victory for Water Justice, Canadian Perspectives, Autumn 2010
- Frequently Asked Questions: A UN covenant for the human right to water
- Fact Sheet: Five things you should know about Canada's position on the right to water
- Fact Sheet: A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water
- Fact Sheet: Global water movement grows in numbers and force
- Climate change threats put human right to water in the spotlight, Canadian Perspectives, Spring 2010
- Taking on the privatizers at the World Water Forum, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2009
- Maude Barlow warns United Nations General Assembly about growing water crisis, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2009
- Bringing the fight for the right to water to the United Nations, Canadian Perspectives, Spring 2009
- A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water needs to change, Canadian Perspectives Spring 2007
- Taking back the World Water Forum, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2006
- Report: Passage to India: A report on the People's World Water Forum and the World Social Forum, January 2004
Summary from UN Human Rights Council meetings on the right to water and sanitation, Geneva September 14-16, 2011
For more information on the issue of water as a human right please see:
VIDEO: In Historic Vote, UN DeclaresWater a Fundamental Human Right:
Interview with Maude Barlow, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, July 29, 2010
You will also see in this video a powerful clip of Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon talking about the right to water resolution just four weeks ago at our 'Shout out for Global Justice' public forum in Toronto on the eve of the G20 summit there.
- All States Must Acknowledge the UN's Recognition of Water as a Human Right, AlterNet, Meera Karunananthan, August 5, 2010
- AUDIO: Maude Barlow on Vermont Public Radio, 'UN Water Expert Returns To Vermont', July 29, 2010
- SPEECH: “The Human Right to Water and Sanitation” Intervention of the Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Ambassador Pablo Solon, July 28, 2010
- WIN! United Nations passes right to water resolution, Blog post by Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians, July 28, 2010
- VIDEO: Maude Barlow: A Human Right to Water, GRITtv, July 28, 2010
- Access to clean water is most violated human right, The Guardian UK, Maude Barlow, July 21, 2010
- Canada must support the right to water, Embassy, Maude Barlow, Meera Karunananthan, and Anil Naidoo, July 21, 2010
- A human right Canada rejects: Access to clean water, The Toronto Star, Maude Barlow and Anil Naidoo, June 13, 2010
- Letter sent to all UN Missions from Maude Barlow requesting support for human right to water and sanitation initiative, July 6, 2010
- Briefing Notes by Maude Barlow that explore why a UN Convention on the Right to Water is an idea whose time has come (November 2006)
- Water is a Human Right
- Blue Planet Project
- Development and Peace
- Association pour un Contrat Mondiale de l'Eau
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