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Adoption of the Human Right to Water

Nov. 27, 2002

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights today adopted the General Comment on the right to water referring to article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The General Comment states that: “The human right to drinking water is fundamental for life and health. Sufficient and safe drinking water is a precondition for the realization of all human rights.”

The Comment defines the sufficiency, safety, affordability and accessibility to water – and describes State’s legal responsibility in fulfilling the right. The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, affordable, physically accessible, safe and acceptable water for personal and domestic uses. The provision of water must be adequate for human dignity, life and health.

The Comment is significant in that it means that households can no longer be disconnected from water supplies. The authority enforcing disconnection of water supply is in violation of international human rights law. This sets an important precedent. The Comment goes on to define water as a social and cultural good, not solely as an economic commodity.

The adoption of the right to water initiates the UN International Year of Freshwater in 2003.

The Committee met for the first time in 1987 and has since then adopted 14 General Comments in order to provide an interpretation of the Covenant. The General Comment on the Right to Water is an interpretation of the right to food (article 11) and the right to health (article 12).

The Comment was discussed in an open meeting on Nov 26th in Geneva, where a number of speakers emphasized the need to consider water a “public commodity even if delivery of services were privatized”. The majority of participants spoke against the privatization of water, while Jack Moss from Suez considered the push to privatize water a "mass salvation against want of water."

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