<br><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">UN
Recognizes Access to Clean Water as a Human Right</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">NEW YORK</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">, New
  York</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:black">, July 29, 2010 (ENS) - Access to clean, safe</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">drinking
water is now an official basic human right everywhere in the</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">world,
like the rights to life, health, food and adequate housing. The</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">water
rights resolution was approved late Wednesday by the United</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Nations
General Assembly, not unanimously, but without opposition.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Safe
and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">the
full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the United Nations</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">General
Assembly declared Wednesday, voting to expand the Universal</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Declaration
of Human Rights to include the right to clean water and</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">sanitation.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">The
192-member Assembly called on United Nations member states</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">and
international organizations to offer funding, technology and other</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">resources
to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">accessible
and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Introduced
by Bolivia,
the resolution received 122 votes in favor</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">and
zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">The
text of the resolution expresses deep concern that an estimated 884</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">million
people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">than
2.6 billion people, 40 percent of the global population, do not have</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">access
to basic sanitation. About 1.5 million children under the age of five</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">die
each year because of water-related and sanitation-related diseases.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">"Diarrhea
is the second most important cause of the death of children</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">below
the age of five," said Pablo Solon, Bolivia's ambassador to the</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">United
Nations, introducing the resolution. "The lack of access to drinking</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">water
kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined."</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">The
United States
was one of the 41 countries that abstained from voting</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">on
this measure - not because the U.S.
does not support the universal</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">right
to water, but because the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">is
working on the issue in a better way, said John Sammis, U.S. deputy</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">representative
to the Economic and Social Council.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">"This
resolution describes a right to water and sanitation in a way that</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">is
not reflective of existing international law; as there is no "right to</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">water
and sanitation" in an international legal sense as described by this</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">resolution,"
Sammis said.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">"The
United States
regrets that this resolution diverts us from the</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">serious
international efforts underway to promote greater coordination</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">and
cooperation on water and sanitation issues," said Sammis.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">"This
resolution attempts to take a short-cut around the serious work of</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">formulating,
articulating and upholding universal rights," he said. "It was</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">not
drafted in a transparent, inclusive manner, and the legal implications of</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">a
declared right to water have not yet been carefully and fully considered</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">in
this body or in Geneva."</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Unlike
some, Germany
views the text not as a threat to the European</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Union-led
"Geneva
process" on water and sanitation, but rather as</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">another
component of that process, said Ambassador Peter Wittig.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.02778px; ">At
the same time, Germany
would have preferred that the text include</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">more
language proposed by the European Union, he said. It nevertheless</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">included
important elements of the work going on within the Human</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Rights
Council and that of the Independent Expert on the subject.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Germany</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black"> invited delegations to
support and participate actively in</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">the
Geneva process
in order fully to understand the right to water and</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">sanitation.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">The
General Assembly resolution welcomes the UN Human Rights</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Council's
request that Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Expert
on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">drinking
water and sanitation, report annually to the General Assembly.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">De
Albuquerque's report will focus on the principal challenges to</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">achieving
the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation, as</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">well
as on progress towards the relevant Millennium Development Goals.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></p></div>