Guidance for companies on respecting the human rights to water and sanitation : bringing a human rights lens to corporate water stewardship

This Guidance aims to:

• help companies (particularly heavy water users) translate their responsibility to respect the human rights to water and sanitation (HRWS) into their existing water management policies, processes, and company cultures
• complement related efforts to clarify the obligations and responsibilities of other actors (particularly states and public or private water and sanitation service providers) with regard to the HRWS.

It has four main parts:

1. About this Guidance, which explains the objectives, intended audience, and scope of the Guidance.

2. Translating Impacts, which illustrates through case examples how impacts on the ground may be understood in both human rights and water stewardship terms, so as to generate a shared understanding of such impacts across multiple functions within a company.

3. Step-by-step practical guidance for putting the responsibility to respect the HRWS into practice. Part 3 is divided into five sections, which reflect the key procedural elements of the UN Guiding Principles:

• Policy Commitment and Embedding
• Assessing Impacts
• Integrating and Taking Action
• Tracking and Communicating
• Remediation and Grievance Mechanisms.

4. Useful Resources that can help companies implement the Guidance, including Diagnostic Questions to accompany Part 3, Key Resources, and a Glossary of Key Terms.