<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD><TITLE>PHA-Exchange> Open letter to WHO Director General regardingUniversal Access from ITPC</TITLE>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Dear Friends,</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Sorry for the short notice! Please post to your lists...</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>As you may know, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is undertaking a study on the scope and content of relevant human rights obligations on water. </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>This is an opportunity to have our voices heard so please consider this sign-on statement. This is a complement to all the individual submissions the OHCHR will receive and is really a vehicle for those who might not have had the time to do a full submission.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>The deadline for submissions was very short - just over 2 weeks and ending Sunday April 15th, 2007. </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>I will submit the text and those signatures received by the 15th through <A href="mailto:water@ohchr.org" target=_blank>water@ohchr.org</A> </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>There may be an opportunity to resubmit with all further signatures in Geneva during an event in May when the High Commissioner is having a consultation session... so even if you cannot sign by the 15th please send your agreement.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>This sign-on is not as substantive as a full submission but it does allow highlighting of some key issues. It is also a bit different than normal sign-ons because it has specific strategic goals.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Please sign and get back to me at <A href="mailto:anil@canadians.org" target=_blank>anil@canadians.org</A>. </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>I am suggesting the sign-on is only for organizations, with country please, at this point, but could also have a section for individuals as well, if there is sufficient interest.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>All for now, hope many are able to engage and support this initiative and ideally, make a submission.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Apologies for not having this translated into other key languages, given the timelines we are trying but this may not happen in time!</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>In Solidarity,</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Anil Naidoo</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=SGMNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA><FONT face=Arial>Blue Planet Project</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=sgmnormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">To Madame Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear Madame High Commissioner, </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Regarding the Human Right to Water (HRTW); we are encouraged that you have been asked to provide this report to the Human Rights Council. Lack of access to clean water for hygiene and personal use is at a critical stage in many parts of the world and the already growing crisis will be intensified by the sweeping effects of climate change. The continuing lack of access to basic sanitation for over half the world’s people continues to lead to fatal disease and a lack of dignity. The time for action on both water and sanitation is well upon us!</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">A strong report from your office, pointing towards mechanisms for implementation of the human right to water and highlighting the importance of a rights-based approach in dealing with the water crisis, will have a potentially major impact; both in how we interact with our water and on future policy decisions of states and the international community. </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The depth of the crisis cannot be overstated, millions die needlessly and billions endlessly struggle with water scarcity and disease, loss of dignity and suffering that accompanies this avoidable scourge. </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Governments have not invested the needed resources, both political and financial to address this issue adequately and the impacts are devastating, strong and unambiguous affirmation of the HRTW may alleviate this lack of attention.</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We hope your work complements that of the many organizations and activists around the world who continue the fight for water justice and sustainable solutions. </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We, the undersigned international networks, civil society organizations and social movements<B>, </B><SPAN>representing people from all corners of the world, coming from movements focused upon environmental, women’s, labour, social justice, human rights, peasant and other struggles, </SPAN>bring the following points forward for consideration in your upcoming report to the UN Human Rights Council. </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We assert that the HRTW exists through its recognition, implicitly and explicitly in international treaties, declarations and customary law which bind all governments. It is engendered in several existing human rights instruments as a binding obligation on the Parties. Nevertheless, the failure of the existing instruments to deal with the HRTW explicitly and directly, has allowed several nations to incorrectly deny that such an obligation exists – underscoring the need for a new instrument. Your study and recommendations must provide the impetus for moving toward such a new instrument.</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We request that all states move beyond simple recognition of the HRTW and develop comprehensive national plans to implement the HRTW, including making this right justiciable through appropriate national legislation.</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We support General Comment 15, approved by the UN Economic and Social Council (November 2002), in which water is seen as ‘indispensable for leading a life in human dignity’ and a ‘prerequisite for the realization of other human rights’. While General Comment 15 is a welcome and necessary step forward, it is not sufficient, in and of itself, to deal with the need for a new legally-binding instrument which will form the basis for moving further towards implementation and full-realization of the . </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We urge the UN, through the Human Rights Council, to designate an appropriate UN administrative body to ensure, at all levels, adequate laws, policies, institutions, administrative procedures and practices and mechanisms of redress which will need to be implemented to realize the <SPAN> </SPAN>and are based on determined benchmarks for measuring progress.<B></B></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We understand that while governments remain the primary duty-bearers, non-state actors (including transnational corporations and international financial institutions) have been playing an increasingly powerful role in water; there have been resultant violations of the HRTW emanating from market-based approaches to water management. We therefore affirm that that all entities, public and private, must be held accountable to comply with the requirements of international law concerning the HRTW and subject to mechanisms providing appropriate redress and compensation to those harmed. </SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We assert that there can be no HRTW without comprehensive protection of the planet’s ecosystem and hydrological cycle; linked to the HRTW is the right of all living things, and the earth, to have access to sufficient water; water is part of the global commons and a public trust, any international agreements on the HRTW must address these issues of environmental protection and sustainability.</SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG></STRONG></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial>Finally, we call upon the Human Rights Council, as steps towards achieving these goals, to appoint a Special Reporter on Water and to move rapidly towards adoption of strong guidelines for states to follow in the implementation of the HRTW; each of which is a necessary condition towards the necessary implementation of an International Convention on the Human Right to Water<B>. </B></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial>Signed;</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial>Blue Planet Project - International</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial>Council of Canadians - Canada</FONT></SPAN></P></BODY></HTML>