Apr 20, 2013: The United Nations Regional Information Center for Western Europe issued the following information:
"We continue to fail to protect and conserve our environment in many respects, often with dire consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, despite great progress in some areas," today warned a group of United Nations independent experts on the occasion of Earth Day 2013.

Tunisia, Mar 28, 2013: About 85 people from at least 23 different countries came together for a 'Roundtable on water as a human right and a commons' at the World Social Forum in Tunisia.
The 3-hour session began with three presentations.
A community leader from Peru highlighted the impact of mining in his country on the right to water. He noted that all mines in Peru are located near water sources and that they will pollute downstream.

New York, Mar 21, 2013: On World Water Day, UN Women is calling attention to the urgent need to increase access to clean water and basic sanitation and to support the initiative of UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson to enhance progress on sanitation ahead of the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Lack of access to basic sanitation infrastructures disproportionately impacts women and girls and puts them at a greater risk of violence and assault when there are no facilities in their homes.

Geneva.

United Nations, Mar 21, 2013: United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson today launched a call for urgent action to end the crisis of 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation, and to change a situation in which more people worldwide have mobile phones than toilets.

United Nations, Mar 19, 2013: When the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2000, water and sanitation were reduced to a subtext - never a stand-alone goal compared with poverty and hunger alleviation.
Now, as the United Nations begins the process of formulating a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for its post-2015 agenda, there is a campaign to underscore the importance of water and sanitation, so that the world body will get it right the second time around.

Kathmandu, Mar 20, 2013: Members of Parliament, civil society organisations and campaigners from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka marched towards the SAARC secretariat in Kathmandu on Tuesday demanding ‘Right to Sanitation for All.’
Calling upon the SAARC countries to ‘Speak in One Voice’ at the 18th SAARC summit to be held in Nepal this year, the entourage submitted a ‘Citizens Charter’ stressing on recognising sanitation as a legal right.
The Charter urges the governments of South Asia to spend at least one per cent of the GDP to achieve univ

UN, Mar 7, 2013: Following are the closing remarks of UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson to the Special Thematic Session of the General Assembly on Water and Disasters, as prepared for delivery, in New York, 6 March:
On behalf of the Secretary-General, I want to thank you all for having taken active part in this very important Special Thematic Session on Water and Disasters together with members of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.  I am honoured to be invited to deliver closing remarks at this critically important gathering.
T

New York, Feb 9, 2013: Thailand must step up its efforts to ensure all their citizens have access to water and sanitation, an independent United Nations expert said, noting that there is currently a stark contrast between populations who are able to enjoy this basic need, and those who do not.

Santiago, Chile, Jan 25, 2013: Most of the world’s urgent problems boil down to water and sanitation, and global leaders must act to reduce child mortality and urban poverty, the UN’s deputy chief said.
There are 783 million people who lack access to clean or relatively safe water and 2.5 billion people, or 37 percent of the world’s population, who don’t have access to toilets, ,” Jan Eliasson told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union-Latin America-Caribbean summit in Santiago.
“This is the main reason why more than 3,000 children under 5 years of age d