Table 1 Research Aim and Objectives

implementations of human rights-based approach and the sustainable development approach in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. In order to achieve this research aim, a case study of Kenya was conducted with specific objectives as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Research Aim and Objectives

Research Aim:

To study the interrelations (or ‘the nexus’) of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 –‘the water goal’ – to identify any gaps between the implementations of human rights-based approach and the sustainable development approach in the context of sub-Saharan Africa.

Specific Objectives:

To investigate how/whether the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation are adopted within the current policies and legislation in Kenya.

To evaluate the Sustainable Development Goal 6 performance in Kenya.

To cross-analyse the human rights-based approach and the sustainable development approach to water and sanitation provision in Kenya.

To identify other factors affecting the water and sanitation provision in Kenya.

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter provides the background of the current debates on the topic of human rights and sustainable development, and their relevance with water and sanitation. First, a brief history of modern human rights movement and Human Rights to Water and Sanitation are presented, followed by a brief history of international frameworks on development and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 –‘the water goal.’ Subsequently, through literature review, the interlinkages between the human rights and sustainable development are explained and discussed. Gaps and contradictions in the literature are identified, and emerging research questions to fill those gaps.

2.1 Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (HRWS)

It is undebatable that water is essential for human life, and sanitation is inseparable from our daily lives. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was first established by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1948 (Resolution 217 A), the topic of water and sanitation was not mentioned explicitly. The rights to water and sanitation could be linked to Article 3 of UDHR on ‘the right to life, liberty and the security of person’ or Article 25 on ‘the right to a standard of living adequate of health and well-being;’ however, it was not until 1977 United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina, that the concept of basic water requirements to meet fundamental human needs was first established. 3 Since the conference in Mar del Plata, the issue of ‘Right to Water’ had been brought up by various conventions and conferences.4 Followed by the conference was The First Water Decade, an International Drinking Water Decade 1981-1990, a ten-year period which aimed to focus on the provision of safe water and sanitation for everyone by 1990,5 and in 1992, UN General Assembly (UNGA) designated 22 March as World Water Day to promote the awareness of the importance of fresh water.6 It was only after the new millennium that the rights to water and sanitation have been recognised in the international law in November 2002 as a part of the right to an

3 Please refer to the Report of the United Nations Water Conference for more information, which is available at: https://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/71UN77-161.6.pdf

4 See 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1992 Dublin Conference and Rio Summit, 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development, and 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements – Habitat II.

5 More information is available at: https://www.gdrc.org/uem/water/decade_05-15/first-decade.html

6 The website of the World Water Day with more information is available at: https://www.worldwaterday.org/

adequate standard of living. 7 In 2003, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) announced The Second Water Decade – the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 20052015 – to promote international commitment dealing with water-related issues, adapting Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and improving water efficiency. 8 The same year, UN-Water was established to coordinate with international organisations to work on the issues of water and sanitation. The UN-Water was the agency in charge of the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015, and initiated programmes like UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC) to familiarise the people with the issues related to human right to water and the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) to strengthen the effectiveness of capacity development activities regarding the issues on water. The United Nations Office to support the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015 (UNO-IDfA) was also established to further facilitate information and raise awareness of the framework.9 In 2005, the rights to water and sanitation were finally being discussed in the Draft Guidelines for the Realization of the Right to Drinking Water and Sanitation, followed by the request to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to consider human rights to water and sanitation in 2006.10 In 2008 and 2009, the Human Rights Council (HRC) passed two resolutions11 where as a result an independent expert, known as a special rapporteur, was assigned to investigate the issues of water and sanitation around the world. Following the special rapporteur’s first report, HRC recognized that States have an obligation to address and eliminate discrimination with regard to access to sanitation for the first time. Consequently, in 2010, the human right to water and sanitation was officially recognised for the first time in the UN General Assembly, acknowledging “the importance of equitable access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as an integral component of the realization of all human rights.”12

7 See Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

8 More information is available at: https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/

9 More information on UN-Water, International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015, UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC) , UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC), and the United Nations Office for International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015 (UNO-IDfA) can be found on the website of UN-Water at: https://www.unwater.org/

10 See Human Rights Council Decision 2/104.

11 Human Rights Council Resolutions 7/22 and 12/8.

12 See Human Rights Council Resolution 64/292 and 15/9.

Since the human rights to water and sanitation were officially recognised in 2010, many international agencies, civil societies and governmental organisations have been acknowledging and promoting the rights to water and sanitation. However, according to Fantini (2020), there are a number of debates contesting such notion: from legal and political perspectives to ethical, philosophical, ecological, and epistemological considerations on the issue. Fantini (2020) also claims that there are discrepancies in the definition of such right with different wordings that emphasise different dimensions of the same issue. In striving for advocacy of the human rights, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a number of documents to guide practitioners, civil societies, governments and more, on how to approach measuring and implementing the rights. In Human Rights Indicators: A Guide to Measurement and Implementation13, published in 2012, it explains what human rights are, the UN’s human rights mechanisms, as well as qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure the implementation of human rights. A table that illustrates the indicators for Human Rights to Water and Sanitation is added in Appendix 1. Moreover, in 2014, OHCHR has published a handbook on Rights to Water and Sanitation Realising the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation: A Handbook by the UN Special Rapporteur Catarina de Albuquerque14 . Intended mainly for State actors and other stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector, this handbook explains the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation and provides advice on how to incorporate HRWS in the legal frameworks. Another document recently published in 2020, A Human Rights Based Approach to Data (HRBAD) – Leaving No One Behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 15 under the headings – Participation, Data Disaggregation, Self-Identification, Transparency, Privacy and Accountability – aims to provide guidance and a common understanding of a human rights based approach with a focus on the issue of data collection and disaggregation. In addition to these documents, there are other indicators to measure the human rights such as the AAAAQ (Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Acceptability and Quality/Safety) / AAAQ (Availability,

13 The guidebook is available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Human_rights_indicators_en.pdf

14 The full handbook is available at: https://www.pseau.org/outils/ouvrages/ohchr_realizing_the_human_rights_to_water_and_sanitation_a_ha ndbook_2014.pdf

15 The guidebook is available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/HRIndicators/GuidanceNoteonApproachtoData.pdf