By Anil Naidoo, Blue Planet Project, Council of Canadians

States just finished negotiating para 67 on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation and Canada, is now the only country that is still demanding that para 67 be deleted.

Other UN Member States explicitly supported recognition, these included, Switzerland, the Holy See and Norway – Norway said, “where Canada suggests deletion, Norway wants retention of the sentence recognizing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation”.

The US, previously calling for deletion along with Canada and Israel, suggested changing ‘recognize’ to ‘ reaffirm our commitments regarding’… Israel was silent and therefore accepted the human right.

Overall, this is a major and positive development!

If this recognition is retained in the text, it will be the first major document where there is consensus and will put to rest any question regarding the legitimacy of this right, some who abstained are still trying to undermine this human right to water and sanitation.

Read the rest of this article on Earth Peoples blog