A/HRC/48/50
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
5 July 2021
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-eighth session
13 September–1 October 2021
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Plan and vision for the mandate from 2020 to 2023
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking
water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo Agudo
Summary
The world is facing a global water crisis generated by the confluence of two structural
flaws in the current development model: the unsustainability of the aquatic ecosystems,
which damages the quality of its flows, turning water from being the key to life into a terrible
vector of disease and death; and the poverty, inequality and discrimination that prevail under
the current socioeconomic order. In addition, the world is suffering from three factors that
directly and indirectly aggravate and intensify that global crisis: the commodification and
financialization of water, climate change and recently, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
pandemic, which has deepened inequalities and extended poverty. In the context of the global
water crisis, three challenging objectives will mark the main strands of the mandate holder’s
work from 2020 to 2023: (1) clarifying ways to promote democratic water and sanitation
governance; (2) furthering the realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and
sanitation, focusing on restoring the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems; and (3) promoting
water as a key to collaboration and peace.
GE.21-09183(E)