Water and Sanitation as Human Rights: Have They Strengthened Marginalized Peoples’ Claim for Access?

• Other Authors: Wilson, Bruce M. (Editor), Brinks, Daniel (Editor), Singh, Arkaja (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2022
• Subjects: Humanities; Social interaction; Cape Town Day Zero; water rights; water scarcity; water-justice; water-governance; inequality; South Africa; right to water; courts; vulnerable groups; UN resolutions; water; sanitation; human rights; human right to water and sanitation; HRtWS; natural language processing; machine learning; text analysis; constitutional reform; legal opportunity structure; water legal framework; socioeconomic rights; Brazil; Peru; Colombia; social movements; political cost; advocacy; activism; social movement; socio-economic rights; United States; political opportunity; coalition-building; collective action; human rights from below; human rights to water and sanitation; water access; constitutionalisation; norm diffusion; opportunity structures; impact and efficacy of human rights; human right to water; drinking water; irrigation; marginalised groups; indigenous communities; social and economic rights; human rights critiques; right to life; right to environment; global rights; evolution of rights; construction of rights; Latin America; South Asia; Europe; Africa; USA
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

This book investigates the impact of the United Nations General Assembly's 2010 resolution that elevated rights to water and sanitation are stand-alone international human rights. A major goal of creating this new human right was to incentivize governments to prioritize and pursue policies to improve access to affordable, potable water to the more than 750 million people worldwide who lacked access, as well as to provide the more than 2.5 billion people with inadequate sanitation. The book's chapters use a variety of methodological approaches including qualitative case studies and quantitative studies that draw on data from around the world. The chapters reveal how the global human right to water and sanitation was created, how it has been used in rights struggles around the world, and the extent to which it has improved access to water and sanitation for the world's most marginalized people.