UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC)
Glossary on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation A Agenda 21 The plan of action to achieve sustainable development that was adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992.
C Convention In the legal sense, a convention is a set of agreed, stipulated, generally accepted standards, and norms, taking the form of a treaty in international law. Covenant/International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) A treaty that 160 countries have ratified as of April 2011, making it legally binding upon them in international law. The Covenant is the primary basis for the human right to water and sanitation and other economic, social and cultural rights. Customary international law International norms derived from a general and consistent practice of States and followed by them out of a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris), rather than from formal expression in a treaty or legal text. Such norms are legally binding on all States, with the exception of those States that are “persistent objectors.�
D Domestic uses of water Domestic uses normally include drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation, personal and household hygiene.
G General Comment No. 15 UN General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water adopted in 2002 by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a committee of experts elected by those States that have ratified the ICESCR. Although General Comment No. 15 is not legally binding, it is an authoritative interpretation of the provisions of the ICESCR.
1