Introduction
The UN General Assembly recognized The Human Right to Water and Sanitation through the resolution 64/292 on the 28 July 2010.[1] Explicitly, sanitation and clean drinking water were acknowledged as fundamental to the realization of all the human rights. The resolution and, in particular, the right, stipulates that the international organizations and the States should provide all the necessary resources that will assist in ensuring the availability of clean water to the citizens. The resources include technology, finances as well as capacity building. To this end, the human right to water and sanitation has been acknowledged in the international law following declarations and human rights treaties. More precisely, the human right to water and sanitation calls upon the governments to ensure the sufficiency and accessibility of clean and safe water. Today, most of the States have integrated the right into their legal frameworks.[2] In as much as the Resolution gives the individual governments an upper hand, the UN also contributes to the enforcement of this law through a myriad of initiatives. The World Health Assembly Resolution 64/24 and Appointment of an independent expert in 2008 are some of the notable efforts by the body. While most of the countries endorsed the resolution, 41 of them, including Australia and the United States opted to abstain from voting for the declaration.[3] The reason for the abstinence was the view that this statement distracted the ‘Geneva Process.’ What this meant is that the abstaining countries will not implement the stipulations of the declaration. The following discussion seeks to examine whether, Australia, in particular, should implement such a right, the content and extent of it and the enforcement process.
Should Australia Implement Such a Right?