Statement by Sergio Vieira De Mello, High Commissioner for Human Rights, at Third World Water Forum

17 March 2003


Statement by Sergio Vieira De Mello
High Commissioner for Human Rights

Third World Water Forum
(Kyoto, 16-23 March 2003)


Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,


You have gathered in Kyoto for the Third World Water Forum to discuss a range of issues of crucial importance to that essential – but limited – natural resource, "water". The Third World Water Forum is being held during the International Year of Freshwater 2003 which was launched by the United Nations General Assembly to highlight growing global concerns about the increasing shortage of water, and its implications for human life and relations among nations.

Water is essential to life itself as well as to good health. The right to water has been recognized as a human right. This right is protected by international law including through the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, despite the centrality of the right to water to human dignity, 1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, more than 2 billion to proper sanitation, and more than 3 million people die each year from water-borne diseases.

Recently, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – the expert body that monitors the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – confirmed that "the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use". Beyond personal and domestic needs, water is necessary for realizing many other human rights, such as the rights to adequate food, health and housing. Safe water is especially necessary to reduce the risk of water-related disease. It should be noted that the principle of non-discrimination applies to the right to water which means that special attention and measures should be ensured to benefit the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

The Third World Water Forum therefore comes at an important juncture in the strengthening of activities and initiatives aimed at the protection and promotion of the human right to water for all. I am pleased to draw your attention to two recent initiatives in particular, namely the recent General Comment of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on “the right to water” and a joint publication of the World Health Organisation and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on “water as a human right”.

Further, I wish to recall the Millennium Summit, during which all 191 Member States of the United Nations committed themselves to reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. With this commitment in mind, I would encourage you to include an explicit reference to water as a human right in the Ministerial Declaration that you will adopt during this Conference. This reference will serve to reinforce the growing awareness that water is essential to a dignified life and to the realization of other human rights.

Access to water must never be compromised, and all efforts should be made to ensure the minimum essential levels of access for human life and dignity. Your actions to safeguard water as a human right will undoubtedly benefit millions of the most disadvantaged.



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