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Dr. Inga Winkler

Dr. Inga Winkler
Associate Professor in
International Human Rights Law
Central European University

Biography Biography in PDF
Human Rights
Living Standard and Health
The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

The human rights to water and sanitation have gained increasing recognition over the last twenty years. By now, it is well acknowledged that they part of the body of international human rights law. In this lecture, Inga Winkler traces the process of recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation and discusses their status under international human rights law. She presents how these rights have been defined, discusses their normative content, and outlines the corresponding obligations to realise these rights. Finally, she examines the implications of the human rights to sanitation and water for law, policy and practice.

Video | Audio
(9/06/2021, 35 minutes)
Human Rights
Living Standard and Health
The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
A. Documents

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No.15, “The right to water (arts. 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)” (E/C.12/2002/11, 20 January 2003).

General Assembly resolution 64/292 of 28 July 2010 (The Human Right to Water and Sanitation).

General Assembly resolution 70/169 of 17 December 2015 (The Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation).

Human Rights Council resolution 15/9 of 30 September 2010 (Human Rights and Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation).

B. Doctrine

M. Baer, Stemming the Tide: Human Rights and Water Policy in a Neoliberal World, Oxford University Press, New York, 2017.

M. Langford, and A. F.S. Russell (eds.), The Right to Water: Theory, Practice and Prospects, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Catarina de Albuquerque, Realising the human rights to water and sanitation: A Handbook, 2014.

I. T. Winkler, The Human Right to Water – Significance, Legal Status and Implications for Water Allocation, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2012.

I. T. Winkler, “The Human Right to Sanitation”, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, vol. 37, 2016, pp. 1331-1406.