49 Amendments of György HÖLVÉNYI related to 2021/2187(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
— having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 9 a (new)
Citation 9 a (new)
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 15
Citation 15
— having regard to the Council Conclusions of 17 June 2019 on the EU human rights guidelines on safe drinking water and sanitation, and of 19 November 2021 on water in the EU’s external action,
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Reaffirms that access to water is a vital imperative and a fundamental right, in the context of the 64/292 Resolution of the UN General Assembly;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. whereas Africa’s urban population is 567 million and continues rapidly growing and the continent will have the fastest urban growth in the world; notes that the rapid urbanisation will pose serious challenges to secure access to drinking water and to food security;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas Resolution 64/292 of the UN General Assembly recognises ‘the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights’; whereas the absence of water is incompatible with life and both rights are essential for a dignifiedwater is indispensable for life and essential for a dignified life; whereas water has also a strong cultural, spiritual and religious dimension due to its fundamental role in society’s life;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the denial of the human rightlack of access to water has repercussions on enjoyment of the right to health; considering that contaminated water, the inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of serious diseases and even death;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the human right to water is linked to the right to education; whereas children, in most cases girls, have to walk miles every day to fetch water, which prevents them from attending school; whereas one out of three children does not have appropriate access to water and sanitation in schools;1a whereas the UN’s 2021 Sustainable Development Goals Report shows that globally, more than a fifth of primary schools lacked access to basic drinking water or single-sex toilets and more than a third lacked basic handwashing facilities;2a whereas girls are also forced to drop out of school when they are unable to access gender-appropriatsuitable toilets and manage their menstruation in a dignified manner; n appropriate manner; whereas children with certain severe disabilities also suffer difficulties to access education due to the lack of adapted toilets and sanitation facilities; _________________ 1ahttps://water.org/our-impact/water- crisis/childrens-and-education-crisis/ 2a https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/Th e-Sustainable-Development-Goals- Report-2021.pdf
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the disadvantages faced by many women and girls, people with certain disabilities and elderly people with regard to water, sanitation and hygiene manifest themselves in multiple ways that impact on their overall health, well-being and dignity, reproductive health, education, nutrition, security, and economic and political participation;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Notes that the rapidly growing urban population in developing countries requires increased efforts to support sustainable waste water management and to investments in water management systems in urban areas;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the sixth United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to ensure that the entire world has universal and equitable access to safe drinking water by 2030‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’ by 2030 remains severely off-track and under-financed, according to the latest status report by UN-Water;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Underlines that the access to water is a cross cutting issue, strongly affecting security, calls for the Commission to support water diplomacy and to foster regional cooperation between partner countries for better management of water resources;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. Wwhereas, according to the United Nations, 785 million people have no access to basic water services, 2 billion people do not have safe and cle the UN’s 2021 Sustainable Development Goals Report shows that, despite the increased proportion of the global population using safely managed sanitation services and drinking water in their homes when they need it, 4.2 billion people live without, and the improvement in basic hygiene, in 2020 still 2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, 3.6 billion lack safely managed sanitation, and 672.3 mbillion people still practise open defecation; lack basic hygiene; and that 129 countries are not yet on track to have sustainable managed water resources for 2030;3a _________________ 3a https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/Th e-Sustainable-Development-Goals- Report-2021.pdf
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas per capita freshwater availability has fallen by 20% over the past two decades; whereas population growth, agricultural intensification, urbanismuch of the net growth in global population up to 2050 will occur in the cities of developing countries, thus increasing urban demands for water and food;4a whereas urban water demand is projected to increase by 50-70% over the three next decades;5a whereas an unbalanced distribution of population growth and depopulation of rural areas, uncontrolled agricultural intensification, the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, as well as certain unlawful and polluting practices in water use, are posing ever-greater water access problems in many regions; _________________ 4a https://www.fao.org/3/i4560e/i4560e.pdf 5a https://documents1.worldbank.org/curate d/en/978191614167678978/pdf/Water- Resource-Management-Working-to- Improve-Water-Security.pdf
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the ongoing climate crisis, with increasing droughts, floods and torrential rains, is exacerbating inequalities in distribution of water; whereas floods and other waccording to the World Meteorological Organization “Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970 – 2019)”6a, out of the top 10 disasters, the hazards that led to the largest human losses during the period have been droughts (650 000 deaths), storms (577 232 deaths) and floods (58 700 deaths); _________________ 6ahttps://public.wmo.int/en/media/press- release/weather-related -disasters account for 70% of all deaths linked to natural disasters; - increase-over-past-50-years-causing- more-damage-fewer
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas ‘water stress’ or water supply-linked vulnerability can be a direct and indirectould be in some cause ofs a driver of induced displacement and migration, along with multiple factors; whereas, according to the UN’s water development reports, five of the world’s eleven regions, accounting for two thirds of the global population, are currently experiencing water stress; whereas, according to the UN’s 2020 Sustainable Development Goals Report, water scarcity could displace some 700 million people by 2030;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas 80-90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged directly into rivers, lakes and seas, causing water-borne diseases hindering tourism and economic development while severely damaging the environment;7a _________________ 7a https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/top ics/water/unsgab/wastewater
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas uncontrolled deforestation, land- grabbing and certain other industrial and natural resource overexploitation and extraction activities, carried out by certain private or public ventures, contribute towards the drying-upimpact the water level of rivers, lakes, and more generally, other water sources;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the vast majority – around 70% – of the world’s fresh water is used for agriculture, while the remainder is divided between industrial (19%), mainly in the food, textile, energy, industrial, chemical, pharmaceutical, and mining sectors, and domestic use (11%), including human consumption; where there are disparities among regions in the world, and Europe and Central Asia have a more balanced use of water (35.7% for agriculture, 30.7% for industry, and 33.5% for domestic use), while, for example, agriculture accounts for 80% of India’s water demand;8a _________________ 8a https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/cha rt-globally-70-freshwater-used- agriculture https://www.iea.org/commentaries/managi ng-the-water-energy-nexus-is-vital-to- india-s-future
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas agriculture is the largest consumer of the world’s freshwater resources and 41% irrigation worldwide occurs at the expense of ecosystems; whereas 33% of arable land is used to grow fodder to feed livestock; where rain fall is insufficient, supplemental irrigation provides essential soil moisture and, thus, increases water productivity, with a potential increase of global cereal production by 35%, the largest potential being in Africa and Asia, as suggested by the FAO 2020 report on “The State of Food and Agriculture, Overcoming water challenges in agriculture”;9a whereas the same report suggests that food productivity and rural incomes10a can be significantly enhanced through investments in new irrigation systems or the habilitation and modernization of existing ones, and this should be combined with improved water management practices including improved agricultural practices, such as the use of drought-tolerant varieties; whereas irrigation covers only 20% of the total land use for agriculture, but supports 40% of global food and fodder output, and 55% of output value;11a _________________ 9a https://www.fao.org/3/cb1447en/cb1447en .pdf 10a https://www.fao.org/land- water/water/water-management/en/ 11a https://documents1.worldbank.org/curate d/en/875921614166983369/pdf/Water-in- Agriculture-Towards-Sustainable- Agriculture.pdf
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas the energy sector is currently responsible forrepresents 10% of global water extraction and its water consumption is expected to rise by almost 60% by 2040;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas the extractive industries have contributed more efficient and sustainable methods and processes should be implemented in the extractive sector theo avoid overexploitation of surface and groundwater resources, as well as high levels of pollution and the destruserious impacti on of glaciers, forests, wetlands, rivers and other vital water sources for human consumption; whereas economic incentives would create opportunities for more efficient use of energy and water resources among these businesses;12a _________________ 12a https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/59 268647-0b70-4e7b-9f78- 269e5ee93f26/Energy_Efficiency_2020.pd f
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas the garment and textile industry counties is one of the biggest employers worldwide, with 150 million people’s lives touched by the global apparel industry, that is to say 1 in 6 people on the planet working in the global fashion supply chains, being 75% of them women;13a whereas it is among the sectors that consume the most water in the world, and whereas apparel and textiles are produced in some of the world’s most water-scarce regions; whereas this industry is ranked as the second most polluting in the world and a large part of that pollution ends up in bodies of water; _________________ 13ahttps://ec.europa.eu/international- partnerships/system/files/gvc-garment- final_en.pdf
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q
Recital Q
Q. whereas the growing demand for water is causing water resources to be overexploited and water’s scarcity has made it a disputed resource; whereas 263 transboundary lake and river basins cover almost half of the Earth’s surface, 145 states have territory in these basins, and 30 countries lie entirely within them; whereas there are approximately 300 transboundary aquifers, helping to serve the 2 billion people who depend on groundwater; whereas around two-thirds of the world’s transboundary rivers do not have a cooperative management framework;14a whereas, according to the UN, conflicts over water are expected in some 300 areas across the world; _________________ 14ahttps://www.unwater.org/water- facts/transboundary-waters/
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R
Recital R
R. whereas the preservation of water resources is under attack and has been made a criminal offence in many countries; whereas in recent years water has become a disputed resource in many countries;environmental legislation in some countries criminalises certain actions that substantially damages the quality of water, as for example, the Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on the protection of the environment through criminal law;15a _________________ 15ahttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32008L00 99
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas, according to Global Witness, more than a third of the land and environmental defenders murdered worldwide between 2015 and 2019 belonged to indigenous communities, whose land and water management skills are crucialimportant in combating the climate crisis and biodiversity loss;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital T
Recital T
T. whereas denying access to wathe intentional deprivation of water leading to the extermination of civilians is a crime against humanity (Articles 7.1 and 7.2.b of the ICC Statuter) and destroying water infrastructure have been used as an essential tactic by occupying powers to annex occupied territoriemay constitute genocide if the victims form a national, ethnical, racial or religious group (Article 6.c of the ICC Statute); whereas it may also be considered as a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, as any attack or destruction to drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works is band displace people from their landned by Article 54(2) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I and Article 14 of the 1977 Additional Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions;
Amendment 102 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for coordinated and coherent water management in developing countries with regard to its various uses (agriculture, energy production, industry, etc.), and calls on the European Union to provide better support to developing countries for sustainable water management particularly support to agricultural sector for sustainable irrigation systems and investments in wastewater management, reservoirs, wetland restoration and in water storage systems;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that enshrining the right to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right was a crucial milestone on the road to greater social and environmental justice; affirms, however, that progress in access to these rights is hampered by the low political priority given to the sector, poor implementation and monitoring of policies, underfunding, lack of accountability and gaps in public participation, particularly among the most marginalised in society, in particular in developing countries;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls the responsibility of states to promote and safeguard all human rights; reiterates, therefore, that states must ensure universal access to safe drinking water and water for sanitation and hygienic purposes in sufficient quantity and quality;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls that states that ratify a human rights treaty undertake to protect, respect and fulfil the commitments adopted in the international, regional and, national and local framework for the protection of these rights; takes the view in this regard that the international community’s recognition of the right to water and sanitation must encompass protection and enforceability arrangements and, therefore, calls on the EU to promote protection mechanisms at international, regional and national level to ensure that upholding the right to water and sanitation is not optional for states but rather an enforceable right;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Maintains that the full exercise of the right to water depends on the preservation of biodiversity, and therefore demands that water management should respond primarily to environmental and social interests and notDemands that water management should respond primarily to environmental and social interests, including labour integration and increasing the incomes and safety conditions of people in poverty and not only to those of the various sectors of the economy;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Considers that public investments and policies must encourage and incentivize the private sector to invest in technologies and management practices that enhance the sustainable production of crops, livestock, and fish by both smallholders and larger companies;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines that pollution and the excessive extraction of water resources by means of industrial activities or discharge are among the most commonly identified threats tothe inefficient management of water resources and pollution caused by some industrial activities negatively affect the exercise of the human rights to water and sanitation;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recognises the important work undertaken by environmental rights defenders, in particular those safeguarding the right to water, and roundly condemns the killings, abductions, torture, gender- based violence, threats, harassment, intimidation, smear campaigns, criminalisation, judicial harassment, forced evictions and displacements carried out by numerous perpetrators, including governments and multinational corporationstate and non-state actors;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to check carefully that the infrastructure and energy projects financed through the various development cooperation and external policy instruments, including the European Investment Bank, uphold and neither jeopardise internationally recognized human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals nor contribute to the expulsion of indigenous peoples from their lands; where they traditionally live;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes with concern that the lack of access to water and adequate sanitation has a devastating effect on women’s rights, the human rights of disabled as well as elderly people, making it difficult for women and girlsthem to lead safe and healthy lives;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Is gravely concerned thaabout violations of the right to water and sanitation in occupied territories aim tof displaced people from their lands and is worried about the denial of access to and control over water resources and infrastructurewhen they are living in precarious conditions in informal settlements;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses that companies worldwide mustshould be incentivised to ensure that their activities do not encroach ondanger the enjoyment of the human right of access to safe drinking water; demands support for the binding treaty being drafted at the United Nations; encourages to build up public-private partnerships that, recognising water as a public good, promotes a better and more affordable access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all, in particular in the creation, the efficient maintenance and management of water infrastructures;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Deplores that, as several UN experts have stated, the commodification of water andwater is treated as a mere commodity without further social and cultural considerations, subject to speculation in futures markets is, in breach of basic human rights and contributes to increasing environmental degradation and exacerbating the vulnerability of the poorest and most marginalised in societyies, particularly in less developed and developing countries, flying in the face of the Sustainable Development Goals;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on states to take legal measures as a matter of urgency to preventing water from being subject to financial speculation on futures markets and to promote democratican appropriate framework of governance of water and sanitation and hygiene services under a approach primarily grounded in human rights and common good considerations;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Recalls that, as the EU Water Framework Directive recognises, water is not a mere commodity but a public good that is vital to human life and dignity; calls on the Commission, given that these are services of general interest that fall, therefore, primarily in the public interest, to permanently exclude water and sanitation and wastewater treatment from the scope of any trade agreements and to check carefullycheck that trade agreements and the activities of European companies do not undermine, whether by action or omission, the right to drinking water and sanitation;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Stresses that public provision is the most appropriate model for the exercise of the human rights to water and sanitation; urges states in this regard to engage in a transparent and robust deprivatisation procesUrges states to improve the effective enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation; calls on governments to increase public investments in sustainable water-related infrastructure and to safeguard water as an essential public good;
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Demands thatEncourages the promotion of stakeholder engagement for informed and outcome-oriented contributions to water policy design and implementation,17a including civil society organisations working to address breaches of the rights to water and sanitation have adequate resources andallowing them to have access to relevant information and the ability to participate meaningfully in water-related decision- making processes; _________________ 17a https://www.oecd.org/environment/resour ces/Council-Recommendation-on- water.pdf
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Stresses that inequalities inlack or limited access to water and sanitation are often attributable to systemic inequalities orsuffered by people that are poor or socially exclusionded; calls on governments to guarantee the absence of discrimination in access to water and sanitation services, as a public good, ensuring the provision thereof for all, in particular by affording priority to access for marginalised groups with a view to remedying systemic discrimination;