A/HRC/27/55 II. Establishing a comprehensive understanding of violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 12. Developments over recent decades have brought greater clarity to the identification of violations of economic, social and cultural rights. The Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights draw on the typology of obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, clarifying that failures to comply with any obligation – be it failures to utilize maximum available resources, or deliberate actions – constitute violations.3 13. During the drafting of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the debates about the scope of violations of economic, social and cultural rights were definitively resolved. Initial proposals for a narrow concept of violations based on deliberate State “interference” or known failures to provide minimum essential levels of those rights were rejected.4 It was recognized that realizing the rights of the most disadvantaged relies also on addressing violations resulting from failures to take positive steps.5 States are obliged to progressively realize rights by applying “maximum available resources” and by prioritizing essential levels of access to the most marginalized. Ultimately, States have the obligation to fully realize the rights to water and sanitation by ensuring access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, accessible and affordable water and sanitation services for all. 14. Ensuring access to justice for victims of a State’s failure to meet any of its obligations is critical to guaranteeing that judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms do not reinforce patterns of systemic inequality and deprivation, or exclude some of the most egregious human rights violations. The Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provide that any failure to comply with human rights obligations, including obligations to progressively realize economic, social and cultural rights, constitutes a violation. 15. The Special Rapporteur embraces a comprehensive understanding of violations of the rights to water and sanitation. Even though all types of violations of rights to water and sanitation are serious, denial of access to services due to discrimination or disconnection from services may be more easily identified as violations. Situations where States have failed to adopt reasonable measures or to allocate appropriate resources are less familiar to many courts and raise additional challenges in determining whether a violation has occurred. Yet such types of violations often involve the greatest number of victims and the most intolerable deprivations. III. A typology of common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation 16. In its general comment No. 15 (2003) on the right to water, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights builds on a comprehensive understanding of 3 4 5 E/C.12/2000/13, p. 17, paras. 5–6. Catarina de Albuquerque, “Chronicle of an announced birth: The coming into life of the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – The missing piece of the International Bill of Human Rights”, Human Rights Quarterly 32.1 (2010): 144–178. Bruce Porter “The Reasonableness of Article 8 (4) – Adjudicating Claims from the Margins” Nordisk Tidsskrift for Menneskerettigheter, 27.1 (2009): 39–53. 5