The UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses is crucial for protecting sources of fresh water. Examining the settlement of water disputes, relationships between legal instruments, and the role of the courts in resolving disagreements, this book is vital to all who seek a deep understanding of water law.
At the UN General Assembly in 1997, an overwhelming majority of States voted for the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses – a global overarching framework governing the rights and duties of States sharing freshwater systems. Globally, there are 263 internationally shared watersheds, which drain the territories of 145 countries and represent more than forty percent of the Earth's land surface. Hence, inter-State cooperation towards the sustainable management of transboundary water supplies, in accordance with applicable international legal instruments, is a topic of crucial importance, especially in the context of the current global water crisis. This volume provides an assessment of the role and relevance of the UN Watercourses Convention and describes and evaluates its entry into force as a key component of transboundary water governance. To date, the Convention still requires further contracting States before it can enter into force. The authors describe the drafting and negotiation of the Convention and its relationship to other multilateral environmental agreements. A series of case studies assess the role of the Convention at various levels: regional (European Union, East Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, Central America and South America), river basin (e.g. the Mekong and Congo) and national (e.g. Ethiopia and Mexico). The book concludes by proposing how future implementation might further strengthen international cooperation in the management of water resources, to promote biodiversity conservation as well as sustainable and equitable use.
The Law of International Watercourses examines the rules of international law governing the non-navigational uses of international watercourses. The continued growth of the world's population places increasing demands on Earth's finite supply of fresh water. Because two or more states sharemany of the world's most important drainage basins - including The Danube, The Ganges, The Indus, The Jordan, The Mekong, The Nile, The Rhine, and The Tigris-Euphrates - competition for increasingly scarce fresh water resources is likely to increase. Resulting disputes will be resolved against thebackdrop of the rules of international law governing the use of international watercourses. In addition, these rules are of importance to donor institutions and governments that provide development assistance for projects relating to shared fresh water resources. While the law of international watercourses continues to evolve due to the intensification of use of shared fresh water resources and, consequently, increasingly frequent contacts between riparian states, The basic rules are reflected in the 1997 UN Convention on the law of the non-navigationaluses of international watercourses. This book devotes a chapter to the 1997 Convention but also examines the factual and legal context in which the Convention should be understood, considers the more important rules of the Convention in some depth and discusses specific issues that could not beaddressed in a framework instrument of that kind. In particular, the book studies the major cases and controversies concerning international watercourses as a background against which to consider the basic substantive and procedural rights and obligations of states.
In Adapting Watercourse Agreements to Developments in International Law: The Case of the Itaipu Treaty Maria A. Gwynn offers an account of the need to align watercourses agreements to the current standards and principles of international law, thereby increasing prospects for achieving sustainable development. As a case study, the author focuses on the most important hydroelectrical energy treaty in the South American region and astutely explores its implementation together with states’ practices regarding the non-navigational uses of watercourses and their commitments to environmental protection. The analysis offers a unique opportunity to assess the value of the UN Watercourses Convention in recommending states adapt their agreements to the provisions of the convention promoting equitable and reasonable uses of watercourses; an interest not only for the treaty partners but also for river basin states and the international community as a whole.
Cross-border Water Trade: Legal and Interdisciplinary Perspectives is a critical assessment of one of the growing problems faced by the international community — the global water deficit. Cross-border water trade is a solution that generates ethical and economic but also legal challenges. Economic, humanitarian and environmental approaches each highlight different and sometimes conflicting aspects of the international commercialization of water. Finding an equilibrium for all the dimensions required an interdisciplinary path incorporating certain perspectives of natural law. The significance of such theoretical underpinnings is not merely academic but also quite practical, with concrete consequences for the legal status of water and its fitness for international trade.
Implementing International Watercourses Law through the WEF Nexus and SDGs: An Integrated Approach Illustrated in the Zambezi River Basin offers an innovative approach to the implementation of international water law (IWL) through integration of the law, the WEF Nexus and SDGs.
Selected from the papers presented at the twenty-third International Social Philosophy Conference held in July of 2006 at University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia --Preface.
The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes provides invaluable insights into the contribution of this international agreement towards transboundary water cooperation via its legal provisions, accompanying institutional arrangements and subsidiary policy mechanisms. Contributing authors - experts on key aspects of the Convention - address a broad range of issues, primarily concerning its: development and evolution; relationship with other multi-lateral agreements; regulatory framework and general principles; tools for arresting transboundary pollution; procedural rules; compliance and liability provisions; and select issues including its Protocol on Water and Health.
The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is hosted and led by UNESCO. WWAP brings together the work of 31 UN-Water Members as well as 37 Partners to publish the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) series. Under the theme Water for Sustainable Development, the WWDR 2015 has been prepared as a contribution from UN-Water to the discussions surrounding the post-2015 framework for global sustainable development. Highlighting water's unique and often complex role in achieving various sustainable development objectives, the WWDR 2015 is addressed to policy- and decision-makers inside and outside the water community, as well as to anyone with an interest in freshwater and its many life-giving benefits. The report sets an aspirational yet achievable vision for the future of water towards 2050 by describing how water supports healthy and prosperous human communities, maintains well functioning ecosystems and ecological services, and provides a cornerstone for short and long-term economic development. It provides an overview of the challenges, issues and trends in terms of water resources, their use and water-related services like water supply and sanitation. The report also offers, in a rigorous yet accessible manner, guidance about how to address these challenges and to seize the opportunities that sound water management provides in order to achieve and maintain economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Formally acknowledging water as a human right could encourage the international community and governments to enhance their efforts to satisfy basic human needs and to meet the Millennium Development Goals. But critical questions arise in relation to a right to water. What would be the benefits and content of such a right? What mechanisms would be required for its effective implementation? Should the duty be placed on governments alone, or should the responsibility also be borne by private actors? Is another 'academic debate' on this subject warranted when action is really what is necessary? Without claiming to prescribe the answers, this publication clearly and carefully sets out the competing arguments and the challenges.
