Legal Path

• Encouraging the ratification of all human rights treaties by all UN Member States and ensuring their compliance with obligations under these treaties, including the obligation to ensure that the right to water is respected and promoted in all national legislation and policies.
• Contributing to the work of UN human rights bodies and agencies on issues around the right to water. For example, assisting the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water by the provision of information and recommendations for implementing the right to water, or assisting the Independent Expert and the Working Group that are considering the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights establishing an individual complaints procedure.
• Helping to clarify the right to water at the community and national levels, by determining, for example: How much water do people need? What standards of safety are required? What are the responsibilities of various actors in the realisation of the right to water? What constitute violations of the right?
• Monitoring both violations of the right to water and progress towards universal realisation of the right.
• Developing appropriate, sufficiently disaggregated indicators for measuring progress towards realisation of the right to water.
• Improving access to national legislation and human rights laws, both in terms of the public availability of the legislation (through ensuring that all government legislation is made public through the appropriate media for the country/region: e.g. books, internet, radio, etc.) and peoples’ accessibility to these media (through the provision of radios, libraries, free or low-cost Internet access, etc.).
• Encouraging legal firms to undertake pro bono work on the right to water.
• Encouraging the development of national legislation aimed at enhancing community participation in areas such as water resource management.
• Prompting the mainstreaming of the right to water within UN agencies. For example, promoting the use of the right to water by international agencies such as the Water Cooperation Facility established by UNESCO as a tool to assist in water disputes.