Implementing the Human Right to Water in Australia

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution declaring that access to clean water and adequate sanitation is a human right. Although 41 countries abstained from the vote (including Australia), 122 members voted in favour of recognising the fundamental importance of the right to water as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights‘. The resolution was passed in recognition of the fact that, at present, approximately 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water‘. Reinforcing this significant development, in September 2010 the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC‘) adopted a legally binding resolution confirming that the human right to safe drinking water is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living and inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as the right to life and human dignity‘.