A/62/214 well as by governmental and non-governmental bodies and in various court decisions. 30 64. While the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights makes no explicit reference to the right to water and sanitation, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights takes the view that water is an independent right implicit in the Covenant and closely related to the rights to the highest attainable standard of health, adequate housing and food. 65. The Committee defines the right to water as the right of everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use. 31 It specifies that access to adequate sanitation constitutes one of the principal mechanisms for protecting the quality of drinking water and that States should progressively extend safe sanitation services to rural and deprived urban areas. 32 In its elaboration of the normative content of the right to water and the legal obligations that arise from it, the Committee notes that, during armed conflicts, emergency situations and natural disasters, the obligations of States encompass the right to water, as well as those provisions of international humanitarian law relating to water. 33 66. For its part, in its resolution 2006/10, the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights confirms the right to sufficient supplies of water to meet essential needs, as well as access to acceptable sanitation facilities that take account of the requirements of hygiene, human dignity, public health and environmental protection (see A/HRC/2/2, chap. II). 67. At the regional level, the right to a sufficient quantity of water to meet basic needs is recognized by the Council of Europe in paragraphs 5 and 9 of its recommendation 14 on the European Charter on Water Resources (2001). Similarly, at their recent summit, the Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement acknowledged the right to water for all in their final document. 68. At the national level, the constitutions of certain countries (for example, South Africa and Uruguay) incorporate an explicit right to water. Moreover, a number of judicial decisions rely upon this human right. For instance, in the case of Residents of Bon Vista Mansions v. Southern Metropolitan Local Council, the South African High Court found that disconnecting a water supply represented a prima facie breach of the State’s constitutional duty to respect the right to water. Similarly, in Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar, the Indian Supreme Court held that the right to life was a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, and it included the right of enjoyment of pollution-free water and air for full enjoyment of life. 69. The Human Development Report 2006 underscores the importance of adopting a rights-based approach to the provision of safe water and adequate sanitation, and emphasizes that access to water is a basic human need as well as a fundamental human right. According to the report, the right to water corresponds to a secure, __________________ 30 31 32 33 14 See WHO, OHCHR, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Water Aid and the Center for Economic and Social Rights, The Right to Water (2003) (www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/ rtwrev.pdf). E/2003/22-E/C.12/2002/13, annex IV, general comment 15, para. 2. Ibid., para. 29. Ibid., para. 22. 07-45379