Macroeconomics and the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

This report is the culmination of a two-day experts meeting, “Macroeconomics and the Rights to Water and Sanitation,” which took place in Lisbon, Portugal from March 31 to April 1, 2011. The meeting was organized as a means to contribute to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation’s work on gender equality and macroeconomics. To this end the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur brought together economists, researchers and advocacy specialists working from a feminist perspective to offer analyses and recommendations.

The consultations were guided by the following objectives: to (i) examine the ways in which macroeconomic policies can effectively comply with human rights obligations related to the rights to water and sanitation; and (ii) address the intersections between human rights and public expenditure management in the fields of water and sanitation services from a feminist perspective.

This report aims to inform the work of advocates monitoring States’ compliance with obligations to realize the rights to water and sanitation, as well as economic, social and cultural rights more generally.

Written by Savitri Bisnath