Statement by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

When you think of water, doesn’t it make you feel alive?

When it quenches your thirst. When you look out at the ocean or a river.

We are here today to contribute for this essence of life to be cherished, treasured, and preserved for future generations.

By the end of today, women and girls around the world will have spent 200 million hours collecting water. And an additional 266 million hours of time lost because they have no toilet at home.

1 in 5 people die every day from water-related illnesses. 90% of those are children under 5.

And the taboo around sanitation means that this word often gets dropped from the conversation or tagged on as an afterthought. Whereas nearly half of the world population (3.6 billion) lack access to safely managed sanitation.

Extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, are making water more scarce, more unpredictable and more polluted. Over 90 percent of environmental disasters world-wide are water-related.

Water has also been a source of violent conflict, with access to water being used as a method of war. It is predicted that competition over water resources will be a major driver of conflict and displacement.

Even before COVID-19 struck, the world was off-track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 and ensure water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Lost opportunities, lost potential, lost lives.

All preventable.

This is a human rights problem.

Human rights provide useful guardrails to ensure the prioritization of the investment needed.

Next March, world leaders will gather in New York at the United Nations 2023 Water Conference.

It represents a critical marker and opening to improve water governance on a global scale.

To accelerate progress in the UN Water Decade (2018-2028).

To re-commit to sustainable development.

To step up international cooperation and galvanize action. Let’s not forget that some of the earliest examples of transboundary cooperation were around water issues!

We have a little over 3 months until then.

Over the next two days lies a unique opportunity to ensure that human rights are at the core of that Conference.

Concretely, this means ensuring that human rights are central to the Conference’s preparation and its overall design: human rights should permeate each and every one of the events foreseen across the five themes. ¹

Cooperative water management must go hand in hand with meaningful participation of local communities. To ensure that those living in the most remote areas of a country can access and manage water.

Regulating hydropower requires that we address the situation of those who may be displaced by related projects.

We must understand the impact of policies on human beings and ecosystems, and then factor them into how we design – and fund – those policies.

Let’s make sure the outcomes of the Water Conference, including the pledges and voluntary commitments, are underpinned by human rights.

The people most affected by lack of access to water and sanitation – they are the real experts on these questions. They cannot be left out of the conversation.

Ensuring the space for them to share their experiences, the obstacles they face, and their solutions is indispensable.

It simply won’t work without them.

We need to reach out to those most marginalized, to their communities, mindful of diversity in all its forms.

Your views on how to do just that, over the course of today and tomorrow’s discussions, will be critical.

By way of example, our Mexico Office participated in dialogues on community water management which helped lead to a Presidential decree recognizing the rights of indigenous communities, including access and management of water resources.

We must also protect those human rights defenders who so courageously promote these rights.

Water is a global public good. It is not a commodity or service to be managed, but a fundamental human right to which all people are entitled without discrimination. And without which, the rights to life, health, food, work are all in jeopardy.

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants.

We have the blueprints for action.

The international human rights treaties, notably the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the valuable guidance provided by its Committee.

We have SDG 6.

And UN-Water’s Roadmap for the integration of human rights in water and sanitation.

And of course, the outcomes of this Forum.

Let us make human rights a game-changer for the Water Conference.

I wish you all successful deliberations.