United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants
and Other People Working in Rural Areas
A/RES/73/165
Article 21
1.
Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the human rights to safe
and clean drinking water and to sanitation, which are essential for the full enjoyment
of life and all human rights and human dignity. These rights include water supply
systems and sanitation facilities that are of good quality, affordable and physically
accessible, and non-discriminatory and acceptable in cultural and gender terms.
2.
Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to water for
personal and domestic use, farming, fishing and livestock keeping and for securing
other water-related livelihoods, ensuring the conservation, restoration and sustainable
use of water. They have the right to equitable access to water and water management
systems, and to be free from arbitrary disconnections or the contamination of water
supplies.
3.
States shall respect, protect and ensure access to water, including in customary
and community-based water management systems, on a non-discriminatory basis, and
shall take measures to guarantee affordable water for personal, domestic and
productive uses, and improved sanitation, in particular for rural wo men and girls and
persons belonging to disadvantaged or marginalized groups, such as nomadic
pastoralists, workers on plantations, all migrants regardless of their migration status
and persons living in irregular or informal settlements. States shall promo te
appropriate and affordable technologies, including irrigation technology, and
technologies for the reuse of treated wastewater and for water collection and storage.
4.
States shall protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains,
forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes, from overuse and contamination by
harmful substances, in particular by industrial effluent and concentrated minerals and
chemicals that result in slow and fast poisoning.
5.
States shall prevent third parties from impairing the enjoyment of the right to
water of peasants and other people working in rural areas. States shall prioritize water
for human needs before other uses, promoting its conservation, restoration and
sustainable use.
Article 22
1.
Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to social security,
including social insurance.
2.
States shall, according to their national circumstances, take appropriate steps to
promote the enjoyment of the right to social security of all migran t workers in rural
areas.
3.
States shall recognize the rights of peasants and other people working in rural
areas to social security, including social insurance, and, in accordance with national
circumstances, should establish or maintain their social protection floors comprising
basic social security guarantees. The guarantees should ensure at a minimum that,
over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income
security, which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as
necessary at the national level.
4.
Basic social security guarantees should be established by law. Impartial,
transparent, effective, accessible and affordable grievance and appeal procedures
should also be specified. Systems should be in place to enhance compliance with
national legal frameworks.
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