At the United Nations this week governments are discussing a set of new global goals to determine the global priorities of the economic, social and environmental agenda for the next 15 years. So far governments have developed a preliminary outline called a “Zero Draft” document of these global priortities, called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and released last week. The Zero Draft did not contain any reference to the human right to water and sanitation. Governments it appears are not ready to commit to their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil when it comes to basic human right to water and sanitation.

The Feminist Task Force, together with the UN Mining Working Group (MWG), the Blue Planet Project, PSI, Food and Water Watch, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), is collaborating on a sign-on campaign to ensure the Human Right to Water and Sanitation is included within the SDGs framework. Join the over 350 social justice organizations calling for the right to water and sanitation!

SIGN ON!

Sign on your organization by clicking the image below which will take you to the worldwewant2015.org, the official online platform carrying the global conversation on the Post 2015 and SDG process.

Circulate this message and “Dear Ambassador” Right to Water letter to your networks SDGrighttowater@gmail.com
Use the Share tools on the http://www.worldwewant2015.org to dessiminate this call
As an advocacy action, forward a copy of the Right to Water letter to the ambassador representing your country at the UN (see attachedUN_Ambassador_OWG_member_contact_sheet_).
Tweet the messages to explicitly name the right to water and sanitation in the #SDGs including #SDGH20 during the #OWG12 and use @FemTaskForce @MWGatUN @SustDev @worldwewant2015 @women_at_rio

For women around the world, water and sanitation are inextricably linked to increasing poverty levels, violence against women and girls, health and hygiene, safe/clean environment and other needs of women. While the fundamental relationship between human rights and sustainable development has been established and generally well-accepted, only two human rights treaties refer directly to a right to water:

the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and thehttps://feministtaskforce.org/?p=1725
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Furthermore, we feel that the Human Right to Water and Sanitation will be an important tool in our struggle to prevent the SDG agenda from being co-opted to promote greater corporate access to water resources and services, in particular in relation to the issue of mining and the extractives development model (link to 3/2013 CSW event).

The MWG recent advocacy brief, A Rights-Based Approach to Resource Extraction in the Pursuit of Sustainable Development, and the Rights-Based Litmus Test, a concrete tool for policy-makers and commentators to gauge the validity of proposals for sustainable development, was distributed to delegates and the public at OWG 10. The MWG’s overall advocacy strategy, through and beyond this brief, aims to ensure that the post-2015 agenda promotes and requires sustainable and democratic management of natural resources, to preserve, restore, and create the conditions necessary for the full enjoyment of human rights, by present and future generations.

For more information, write to info@feministtaskforce.org or SDGRighttoWater@gmail.com