A/HRC/27/55 ordering the resumption of water provision. 9 The court also ordered the progressive improvement of the water distribution system, thereby demonstrating that violations of the obligation to respect are often linked to violations of obligations to fulfil. The Human Rights Committee found that Bulgaria had violated the right to home and family, as well as the rights to life and non-discrimination, by allowing the Municipality of Sofia to disconnect the water supply to a Roma community.10 The Committee requested Bulgaria to issue interim measures requiring the authorities to reconnect the water supply. 2. Pollution, diversion or depletion of water resources 20. Pollution and over-abstraction of water resources through industrial activities or dumping are among the most commonly identified threats to the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation.11 Where such pollution or over-abstraction results from State action, such as (a) dumping of waste and sewage, (b) the activities of State-controlled extractive industries, or (c) licensing of projects predicted to result in human rights violations, States may be in violation of their obligation to respect the rights to water and sanitation. 21. In Argentina, a court considered the situation of impoverished neighbourhoods in Córdoba, where wells had been contaminated with faecal and other matter from a water treatment plant overflowing with untreated sewage.12 The court ordered the municipality to take urgent measures to address the situation, including providing 200 litres of safe water per household per day until a permanent solution was found. With regard to the licensing of projects such as mining, the Special Rapporteur has received numerous communications alleging water contamination.13 3. Criminalization of activities linked to water or sanitation and punitive measures 22. Other violations arise from the criminalization of activities linked to access to water or sanitation, such as the prohibition of public defecation or urination when no other options are available – partially as a result of increasing closures of public facilities.14 The criminalization of homelessness frequently leads to serious violations of the right to sanitation, but these are rarely taken to court by affected groups, as they often face serious stigma and a constant battle to survive. However, a court in the United States struck down ordinances preventing homeless people from engaging in life-sustaining activities linked to the right to sanitation: “The harmless conduct for which they are arrested is inseparable from their involuntary condition of being homeless. Consequently, arresting homeless people for harmless acts they are forced to perform in public effectively punishes them for being homeless”.15 On her mission to the United States, the Special Rapporteur observed 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Camara de Apelaciones en lo Contencioso Administrativo y Tributario de la Cdad. de Bs. As., Sala I, Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia c/ GCBA s/ Amparo”, Argentina, 18 July 2007, Expte. Nº 20.898/0. Human Rights Committee, communication No. 2073/2011, Liliana Assenova Naidenova et al. v. Bulgaria, Views adopted on 30 October 2012, paras. 9 and 14.2. www.ejatlas.org/commodity/water. Ciudad de Córdoba, Primera Instancia y 8a Nominación en lo Civil y Comercial, Marchisio José Bautista y Otros, Acción de Amparo (Expte. No 500003/36) (19 October 2004). E.g. Communication ARM 2/2012, https://spdb.ohchr.org/hrdb/23rd/public__AL_Armenia_03.12.12_%282.2012%29.pdf and the reply of 2 April 2013, https://spdb.ohchr.org/hrdb/23rd/Armenie_02.04.13_%282.2012%29.pdf. A/66/265, para. 3; A/HRC/21/42, para. 42. District Court, SD Florida, United States, Pottinger v. City of Miami, 810 F. Supp. 1551 (16 November 1992). 7