A/71/302 I. Introduction 1. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the General Assembly in September 2015, contains a broad set of Sustainable Development Goals that will require unprecedented global commitment and cooperation between countries (see General Assembly resolution 70/1). From the human rights perspective, the agenda is grounded in international human rights law and offers critical opportunities to further advance the realization of human rights for all people everywhere without discrimination. 1 The challenge now is to ensure that strategies and policies to implement the 2030 Agenda are effectively based in the established human rights framework. 2. The human rights to water and sanitation are explicitly referenced in the Agenda, and targets 6.1 and 6.2 are in line with some aspects of the normative content of those rights. The Goals are considered interdependent, and it is very clear that achieving Goal 6 will have a great impact on other Goals. At the same time, several Goals are fundamental for the realization of the human right s to water and sanitation, such as Goal 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries and Goal 17 on strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. Several targets of Goal 17 aim at the full implementation of official development assistance by developed countries and their reaching certain proportions of aid relative to gross national income, and address finance, technology and capacity-building and respecting each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development. 3. Given that background, the present report seeks to assess the roles that development cooperation 2 can and should play in the realization of the human right s to water and sanitation. There are several reasons to affirm the relevance of development cooperation to the realization of the human right s to water and sanitation. One is that it represents an important share of total funding for water and sanitation services in the global South, which is to increase pursuant to the 2030 Agenda. Another reason is that development cooperation often establishes a benchmark for adequate conduct in the water and sanitation sector, not only for funders but also governmental agencies of partner countries. 3 Such influence can significantly affect the prospects for the realization of the human right s to water and sanitation. 4. The present report has three main objectives: first, to clarify the human rights obligations of bilateral and multilateral funders, including United Nations agencies, __________________ 1 2 3 16-13590 See Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ”, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/ Issues/MDG/Pages/The2030Agenda.aspx. The term “development cooperation” is used throughout the present report, although some sources use different terms, sometimes with slightly different meanings. The intention here is to highlight the relevance of both components: “development” as the purpose of this kind of support to interested States and “cooperation” denoting a horizontal relationship between funders and recipient States. Conventionally, development cooperation includes actions such as grants, loans, debt forgiveness, technical and programming support and policy advice to recipient States. “Partner” State or country is used in the present report in place of “recipient” State or country, with the intention of suggesting a more horizontal relationship between the funder and the State that receives funding. 3/24