The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria cordially invites you to a webinar commemorating World Water Day 2026 under the theme  Advancing the Right to Water and Water Justice in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM (SAST)
Virtual Event

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Background

World Water Day provides an important opportunity to reflect on water as more than a resource or a service-delivery issue. In the African context, water must also be understood as a matter of justice, dignity, equality, and socio-economic rights. Across the continent, many communities continue to face serious challenges in accessing sufficient, safe, affordable, and physically accessible water. These challenges are closely linked to poverty, inequality, inadequate infrastructure, weak governance, environmental degradation, climate change, and social exclusion. They are also deeply gendered, as women and girls, particularly in rural areas, often bear the greatest burden of water collection, household water insecurity, and the social, health, and safety risks associated with inadequate access.

The proposed webinar is especially timely considering the African Union’s 2026 Theme of the Year: “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063”, as well as the World Water Day 2026 theme, “Water and Gender.” These themes underscore that water access is central not only to health and livelihoods, but also to equality, inclusion, participation, and sustainable development. The webinar also aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 6, which seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with particular attention to equitable access, the needs of women and girls, and community participation.

Access to water is closely interconnected with the enjoyment of other socio-economic rights, including the rights to health, food, housing, education, equality, dignity, and a healthy environment. When water is inaccessible, unsafe, or unaffordable, the consequences are farreaching, especially for communities already experiencing structural disadvantage. Water injustice therefore raises critical questions of accountability, participation, inclusion, and state responsibility.

This discussion is supported by a growing normative framework on the right to water. At the international level, CESCR General Comment No. 15 defines the right to water as entitling everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. The UN General Assembly, in Resolution 64/292, recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. At the African regional level, the African Commission’s Principles and Guidelines on the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the African Charter and the Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa provide further guidance on state obligations, equality, non-discrimination, participation, affordability, accessibility, and the need to address the specific vulnerabilities of women and marginalized communities.

In commemoration of World Water Day 2026, the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, will host a webinar that brings together scholars, students, practitioners, policymakers, civil society actors, and other stakeholders to engage critically with water justice in Africa through a socio-economic rights lens. The webinar will critically examine water access in Africa through a socio-economic rights lens, with particular attention to gender, rural inequality, and accountability.

Purpose

The webinar aims to stimulate informed and interdisciplinary dialogue on water justice in Africa and to examine how a rights-based approach can strengthen equitable access, accountability, and inclusive governance.

Objectives

The webinar seeks to:

• explore water within the broader socio-economic rights framework in Africa;
• examine the relationship between water access and the enjoyment of other rights such as dignity, health, food, housing, education, and equality;
• highlight the gendered dimensions of water insecurity, especially the impact on women and girls in rural communities;
• interrogate the legal, policy, and governance challenges that shape water access and water injustice; and
• promote dialogue on accountability, participation, and rights-based responses to inequality in water access.

Target audience

The webinar is intended for academics, students, legal practitioners, policymakers, civil society organisations, development practitioners, community-based actors, and others interested in water governance, gender equality, and socio-economic rights in Africa.

Expected outcomes

The webinar is expected to:

• deepen understanding of water as a socio-economic rights and justice issue in Africa;
• generate critical dialogue on the gendered and unequal impacts of inadequate water access;
• strengthen engagement among academic, policy, and civil society stakeholders; and
• lay a foundation for future work on water justice, equality, and accountability within broader socio-economic rights discourse.