Keep Your Promises
Sita Magar, from Dharan, Nepal, fought for access to water in her informal settlement. Her initial request for a water connection for her community was refused. Sita organised a three-day demonstration and meeting demanding the human right to water and sanitation – embedded in Nepal’s interim constitution – be fulfilled for the community. The demand was upheld. Houses in the informal settlement now have access to water.
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognised the human right to water and sanitation. But although implicitly and explicitly recognised in a series of treaties and conventions, in many countries governments are failing to live up to their legal obligations and take the steps necessary to ensure the human right to water and sanitation is realised.
The Keep Your Promises campaign calls for all countries to uphold their commitments and progressively realise the human right to water and sanitation.
At an international level, we call on governments to ensure that human rights frame the Sustainable Development Goals which are due to replace the Millennium Development Goals.
At a national level, Keep Your Promises calls on governments to recognise the human right and its requirement of focusing on the most disadvantaged and marginalised, and on the inequalities and discrimination at the heart of social injustice and inequality. Governments must also enable participation, accountability and empowerment, and prioritise the needs and wants of people, regardless of race, class, gender or sexuality.