Water is the essence of life. Safe drinking water and sanitation are indispensable to sustain life and health, and fundamental to the dignity of all. Yet, 884 million people do not have access to improved sources of drinking water, while 2.5 billion lack access to improved sanitation facilities.1 While these numbers shed light on a worrying situation, the reality is much worse, as millions of poor people living in informal settlements are simply missing from national statistics. The roots of the current water and sanitation crisis can be traced to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, and it is exacerbated by social and environmental challenges: accelerating urbanization, climate change, and increasing pollution and depletion of water resources.2 In order to address this crisis, the international community has increasingly recognized that access to safe drinking water and sanitation must be considered within a human rights framework. Such access is explicitly referred to, for instance, in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted its general comment No. 15 on the right to water, defined as the right of everyone “to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.” Four years later, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights adopted guidelines for the realization of the right to drinking water and sanitation. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), too, has underlined that the starting point and the unifying principle for public action in water and sanitation is the recognition that water is a basic human right. In 2008, the Human Rights Council created the mandate of the “independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation” to help clarify the scope and content of these obligations. Several national constitutions protect the right to water or outline the general responsibility of the State to ensure access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all. Courts from various legal systems have also adjudicated cases related to the enjoyment of the right to water, covering issues such as the pollution of water resources, arbitrary and illegal disconnections, or lack of access to sanitation. This publication is based on The Right to Water, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner 2 for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), WaterAid, and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) in 2003. It starts by explaining what the right to water is, illustrates what it means for specific individuals and groups, and then elaborates upon State obligations with respect to the right. It concludes with an overview of national, regional and international accountability and monitoring mechanisms. As chapter I will show, water and sanitation do not enjoy the same status under international law. Yet, in many instances and international declarations and commitments, including the Millennium Development Goals, sanitation has been closely associated with the right to water. That is why, in some parts of this publication, the two are mentioned together