The Human Right to Water : Legal and Policy Dimensions
The evolution of the right to water can be traced to the developments of the early 1970s. This Study analyzes the resolutions and declarations of the various conferences and forums that have been held since that time, and the ways in which they hav...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/01/5180202/human-right-water-legal-policy-dimensions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14893 |
| Summary: | The evolution of the right to water can
be traced to the developments of the early 1970s. This Study
analyzes the resolutions and declarations of the various
conferences and forums that have been held since that time,
and the ways in which they have confronted the issue of the
right to water. The Study then discusses the evolution of
the international legal regime for the protection and
promotion of human rights, and pays particular attention to
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, as well as to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights. The role of each of the committees
established to oversee the implementation of the two
Covenants is considered in some detail. Particular attention
is given to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, its evolution, and its strengthening, and the
practice of issuing General Comments. The last two parts of
the Study are devoted to General Comment No. 15, which
recognizes the human right to water. These parts analyze the
extent to which the Comment recognizes a legal right to
water, and highlights some policy aspects that are related
to, and may affect, this right. The core thesis of this book
is that there exists, within the legal framework of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, a human right to water because it is a right that
inheres in several other rights, and a right without which
key provisions of the Covenant would be rendered
ineffectual. This conclusion is buttressed also by the
interpretative authority that lies with the Committee having
evolved from its initial form as a Working Group, to what is
now undeniably, a fully-fledged entity, with significant
formal authority and legitimacy. Although this conclusion
acknowledges that General Comments do not create new rights,
it recognizes that General Comment No. 15 extrapolates the
normative and practical bases of a human right to water
within the fabric of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights. Together with a number of
General Assembly resolutions on the issue, including the
Millennium Development Goal related to water, as well as the
voluminous body of soft law provisions, the General Comment
arguably provides further evidence that there is an
incipient right to water evolving in public international
law today. Moreover, the Comment has offered a new momentum
to efforts aimed at translating those soft law commitments
into substantive, precise, and legally binding obligations. |
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