On 7 May 2015 the Mercy Global Action office at the UN along with colleagues from the NGO Mining Working Group (MWG) and the Blue Planet Project of the Council of Canadians addressed a joint letter to the Ambassadors of UN Member States on behalf of more than 600 organizations as part of the global water justice movement.

 

The letter urges Member States to ensure that the human right to water and sanitation (HRTWS) is included in the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. It builds on the consistent and urgent advocacy done by civil society throughout the Post-2015 process regarding the importance of including the HRTWS.

Although the UN General Assembly recognized the HRTWS as a human right in 2010, this right remains grossly unmet for 40% of the world’s population that lacks access to adequate sanitation and a quarter of the global population that lacks access to clean drinking water. The Post-2015 Development Agenda is an opportune and historic moment for transformation in these areas.

To learn more about this initiative, see the MWG press release.

Very grateful thanks are extended to all of the Sisters of Mercy leadership and Justice teams that signed on to the letter. Thanks also to the hundreds of water justice alliances and organizations who joined this call and signed the letter.

Messages to:
Aine O’Connor rsm - MGA Coordinator at the UN
Avery Kelly - MGA Fellow