Franciscans InternationalFI Campaigning for the Human Right to Water in Post-2015 Agenda
UPDATE: On May 7th, 621 organizations collectively representing billions of people globally issued a joint letter to United Nations Member States urging them to include the fundamental right to water and sanitation in the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Franciscan organizations from Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, the United States, and Uruguay have signed the letter.
See the press release here.
FI joins the Mining Working Group and other civil society organisations in advocating for the right to water to be explicitly included in the post-2015 Agenda.
United Nations Member States have explicitly recognized water and sanitation as a human right. Yet the human right to water and sanitation remains unmet for hundreds of millions of people. Member States have committed to deliver a Post-2015 Development Agenda that is truly transformative, people-centered, and focused on the most marginalized. To make good on those commitments, safeguarding the human right to water and sanitation is essential.
Thanks to previous campaigning on the right to water and sanitation, water has been named in the chapeau of the outcome document of the Open Working Group. As the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Agenda are well underway, UN Member States are now giving input to the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the overarching document of political aspiration that will be adopted along with the Sustainable Development Goals at the UN Summit in September 2015.
It is essential for the human right to water and sanitation to be included in the Declaration, whose zero-draft is expected to be released next month. As part of the campaign, FI and partners are therefore calling organisations to:
1) Sign the letter addressed to UN Member States
2) Send a copy of the letter to national government representatives
3) Engage in social media, by following the campaign on twitter and facebook