This Handbook is the product of six years of work by the first UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation. It explains the meaning and legal obligations that arise from these rights, translating the often complex technical and legal language into accessible information.

This Handbook has been developed to:

•clarify the meaning of the human rights to water and sanitation;
•explain the obligations that arise from these rights;
•provide guidance on implementing the human rights to water and sanitation;
•share some examples of good practice and show how these rights are being implemented;
•explore how States can be held to account for delivering on their obligations; and
•provide its users with checklists, so they can assess how far they are complying with the human rights to water and sanitation.

The target audiences for this Handbook are governments at all levels, donors and national regulatory bodies. It provides information that will also be useful to other local, regional and international stakeholders, including civil society, service providers and human rights organisations.

The Handbook is presented in nine booklets, each of which addresses a particular area of activity:

Booklet 1: Introduction
Booklet 2: Frameworks (Legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks)
Booklet 3: Financing (Financing, budgeting and budget-tracking)
Booklet 4: Services (Planning processes, service providers, service levels and settlements)
Booklet 5: Monitoring
Booklet 6: Justice (Access to justice)
Booklet 7: Principles (Non-discrimination, equality, information, participation, sustainability)
Booklet 8: Checklists
Booklet 9: Sources (Glossary, Bibliography, Index)

Booklets 2-7 contain checklists for the State and other actors to assess whether the State is complying with the requirements of the human rights to water and sanitation.

Bibliographic information

de Albuquerque, C. (2014). Realising the human rights to water and sanitation A handbook by the UN Special Repporteur Catarina de Albuquerque UN special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Portugal

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