A/70/203 • To monitor their representatives and hold them accountable; • To make decisions about their daily use of water, sanitation and hygiene services. 34. Poor and marginalized individuals and communities are oft en the passive objects of policymaking, excluded from public debate, unable to participate in political life and prevented from influencing the decisions that have a profound effect on their everyday lives. Access to information helps balance the unequal power dynamic that exists between marginalized individuals and groups and the State and other bodies such as service providers. 4. Accountability 35. States have an obligation to realize the human rights to water and sanitation, and can be held accountable for this. Monitoring is essential to assessing whether States and other actors, including service providers, are complying with the human rights to water and sanitation, and is a prerequisite for holding them to account for violations. This requires monitoring that goes beyond physical services, but also focuses on inequalities in access to services within countries, cities and settlements. Where there are inequalities in access, or the State is not progressively realizing the rights to water and sanitation, using maximum available resources, or otherwise not meeting its human rights obligations, people must be able to gain access to justice. States have an obligation to put appropriate accountability mechanisms in place and to ensure access to the courts as a last resort. 5. Sustainability 36. Human rights law requires that the progressive realization of human rights is achieved in a sustainable manner. Improvements to services and facilities must be maintained such that there is no slippage and retrogression is avoided. In the context of service levels, this demands that services are reliable and continuously functional. Above all, today’s services must not limit future generations from accessing water, sanitation and hygiene services. The most appropriate technology must be chosen with due attention to immediate costs (for example, those related to construction), long-term costs (for example, those related to operation and maintenance) and the availability of water and financial resources. III. Assessment of key types of service through the lens of human rights 37. To facilitate the discussion on the appropriateness of the different types of service, this section discusses technologies, management models and regulatory frameworks for water, sanitation and hygiene. This discussion includes a brief assessment of the characteristics and factors of each type of service that can either favour or hinder their compliance with the human rights to water and sanitation. The context and policy environment in which a particular technology is used strongly influences whether the service complies with human rights standards and principles. This section assesses the relevant factors that are necessary to ensure the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation depending on the type of service by considering how technologies and management models for service provision interact. 15-12500 11/24