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.