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Ensuring children's right to water through community participation: Myth or reality?
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Singh, Nandita Wickenberg, Per Åström, Karsten Hydén, Håkan |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | INTRODUCTION Water is a basic need for children, the availability of which in adequate quantity and appropriate quality is indispensable for their life, physical survival and holistic development. Considering the centrality of the resource in their life, water has been recognized as a human right for this group and seen as a prerequisite to realization of a number of their other rights. The UN Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989) recognizes children's right to water as a ‘provision right’ and requires governments to ensure provision of clean drinking water in an effort towards full implementation of children’s right to the enjoyment of highest attainable standard of health [Article 24 (c)]. In the General Comment No. 15 on the human right to water (CESCR, 2002), children have been recognized as a special group that has traditionally faced difficulties in exercising the right and hence obliges upon governments to ensure that they are not prevented from enjoying their human rights due to lack of adequate water in households or through burden of collecting water. According to this document, the human right to water falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living and for achieving the highest standard of health (WHO, 2003). The human right to water entitles every child, girl or boy, to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. It is acknowledged that while the adequacy of water may vary according to different conditions, the factors of ‘availability’, ‘quality’, and ‘accessibility’ are universally applicable (CESCR, 2002). The question of right to water is further seen as holding special significance for girls primarily in the developing world, where their involvement in collecting, transporting and managing domestic water starts early. Consequently, the right to water of girl children has been provided additional protection under the Convention on Eradication of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979). Governments have a constant and continuing duty to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards the full realization of the right to water, by undertaking action to respect, protect and fulfill the right to the maximum of the available resources. Further, fulfillment of the right is to be achieved through facilitation, promotion and provision. Since right to water is categorized under the economic, social and cultural rights, one of the ways to ‘fulfill’ the right is by facilitating improved and sustainable access to safe water through adoption of comprehensive and integrated strategies and target-based programs (CESCR, 2002). In many countries, governments have initiated action within the scope of the children's right to water through targeted water supply programs that tend to prioritize the needs of women and children as well as the poorer marginalized sections. In many cases, these have been in place since long but mostly supply-driven with the result that improved water supply systems have not been sustainable, especially in the rural |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.iwra.org/congress/resource/abs401_article.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
