The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.

It is presented in nine booklets, each of which discusses a particular topic. It is currently available in English and will soon be available online in Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Purpose of the Handbook

Specifically, the Handbook has been developed to:

• clarify the meaning of the human rights to water and sanitation;
• explain the obligations that stem from these rights;
• provide guidance on implementing the human rights to water and sanitation;
• share good practices and how these rights are being implemented;
• explore how governments can be held to account for delivering their obligations; 
• provide checklists, so users can analyze how they are complying with the rights.

Target Audience

The target audiences for this Handbook are governments, donors and national regulatory bodies. It provides information that will also be useful to local, regional and international stakeholders, such as civil society, service providers and human rights organizations.

Partners in Collaboration

Through its various projects UN-Habitat has demonstrated how the right to water and sanitation can be achieved in reality and has also developed the following publications in collaboration with its partners:

Fact Sheet on the Right to Water published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in collaboration with UN-Habitat and the World Health Organization

Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation in an alliance with COHRE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, (AAAS), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and NORAD

Sanitation: A human rights imperative with COHRE, WaterAid and SDC

International human rights law demands that States work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation, being guided by human rights principles and the standards of the human rights to water and sanitation.

The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.

State budgets are vital tools for translating human rights obligations into practical reality. This booklet outlines how States can meet these obligations by allocating the maximum available resources for the realisation of all human rights, and, in this context, the human rights to water and sanitation.Specifically, this booklet outlines how the human rights to water and sanitation are integrated into the four stages of a State’s budget cycle: formulation, enactment, execution and oversight.

The incorporation of human rights standards and principles into national and local planning processes is crucial to ensure the human rights to water and sanitation. This is ambitious but realistic, and provides States with tools to improve services and eliminate inequalities in access.

States must devise strategies and set targets to address discrimination and eliminate inequalities in access to water and sanitation. This will require the development of tailored interventions for specific circumstances and careful monitoring of progress for disadvantaged individuals and groups. Without this focus, improvements in water and sanitation services tend primarily – or exclusively – to reach people who are better off, reinforcing existing inequalities.

Monitoring is essential to assessing whether States and other actors, including service providers, are complying with the human rights to water and sanitation; it is a prerequisite for holding States and other actors to account for violations or offences.

The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.

Equality and non-discrimination are the bedrock principles of human rights law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in article 1 that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, and in article 2 that “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind.

The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.

This contains all the Checklists in the handbook.

The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.

This contains all the bibliography used in the handbook.

The Handbook will serve as a practical guide explaining the meaning and legal obligations that stem from the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, translating the often complicated legal language into information that can be readily understood by practitioners including government officials and members of civil society organizations.