Nairobi, 14 October 2014 - The UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, with direct support from UN-Habitat, recently presented a new publication: “Realizing the human rights to water and sanitation: A handbook”. 

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

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 on delivering their obligations; and provide checklists, so users can analyze how they are complying with the rights. 

The Handbook is aimed at governments, donors and national regulatory bodies. It provides information that also be useful to local, regional and international stakeholders, such as civil society, service providers and human rights organizations. 

It features 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. 

Download the Handbook here

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: