The expertise and grassroots experience of organisations working on water can be used in various ways to influence the development of the right to water within the UN human rights system.
- General Comments
General Comment No. 15 on the right to water benefited from recent efforts of treaty-monitoring bodies to seek wider input from relevant organisations in the drafting of General Comments. Various organisations working on the right to water were consulted, as experts in the field, by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to assist in the drafting and revisions of the General Comment. Input into General Comments involves providing advice to the Committee in the form of oral and written briefings and recommendations.
- Consultative Status
It is possible for a number of international, regional, sub regional and national non-governmental, non-profit public or voluntary organizations to obtain what is called ‘Consultative Status’ with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Consultative Status grants organisations meeting the specified criteria specific rights, which may include attendance at international conferences, the proposal of agenda items for council meetings, and oral presentations at these meetings.
The consultative relationship with ECOSOC is governed by ECOSOC resolution 1996/31 which ‘outlines the eligibility requirements for consultative status, rights and obligations of NGOs in consultative status, procedures for the withdrawal or suspension of consultative status, the role and functions of the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs, and the responsibilities of the UN Secretariat in supporting the consultative relationship’.
Information on obtaining consultative status with the UN can be found at http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/
- Reporting to Treaty Bodies
States Parties to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are obliged to report regularly to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Committee) on their progress towards universal realisation of the right to water. Non-governmental organisations can assist in this area in several ways, such as:
- providing the government with information from the field for state reports
- submitting alternative non-governmental reports to the Committee
- preparing written or oral briefings for states or the Committee itself
- encouraging states to comply with their obligation to submit reports in full and on time
- monitoring States Parties’ observance of and compliance with the recommendations given by the Committee after reviewing the reports.
