World Water Forum
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Human Right to Water © AI |
On the occasion of the World Water Day, 22 March 2003, Amnesty International stressed the need to focus on the human rights dimension regarding the issue of access to water, and urged the international community to call upon the conclusions of The World Water Development Report, published by the United Nations.
The report provides a grim outlook for marginalized communities around the world seeking access to fresh water. The report raises many critical issues including water scarcity, climate change, water quality, and the spread of water-borne diseases. Amnesty International believes that recognising that access to water is an essential human right would assist efforts to address these issues and to ensure the world’s water supplies are administered in a fair and sustainable fashion.
Amnesty International welcomes, therefore, the General Comment issued in January this year by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in which the Committee explicitly affirmed the right to water. It said:
"The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. The Committee has been confronted continually with the widespread denial of the right to water in developing as well as developed countries."
The Comment noted that water is required for a range of different purposes that relate to the protection of other human rights. These include the production of food (right to adequate food), environmental and personal hygiene (right to health), securing livelihoods (right to gain a living by work), and enjoying certain cultural practices (right to take part in cultural life).
Amnesty International further believes that the human rights framework has much to offer efforts to tackle critical water issues. If we address the issue of access to water from a human rights perspective, we necessarily must consider the rights of all individuals to water. Disputes over water must then be resolved in ways that guarantee access, and do not, for example, make it conditional on one’s relative wealth, social status, or nationality. Further, speaking of a right to water makes it clear that governments have duties to fulfil that right. Whatever arrangements are put in place regarding private sector investment and ownership in delivering water, governments cannot sub-contract this responsibility. The rights approach also gives us the opportunity to think of scarcity of water in terms of the non-fulfilment of rights, and this brings an added impetus to efforts to address this scarcity.
Water is a special resource - all of life depends on it. Speaking of a human right to water brings a necessary moral dimension to the discussions. Human rights law offers standards based on fundamental, widely-shared values.
Finally, if our starting point is human rights, there is a greater chance that controversies over projects related to the supply and delivery of water will be resolved in ways that do not lead to human rights abuses. Recent experiences have shown that several large development projects intended to provide access to water have ended up causing human rights violations, either through mass displacement of people (as in the Narmada project in western India) or by increasing charges for access to water drastically and using force against peaceful protestors (as in Cochabamba, Bolivia).
Please see also Amnesty International's public statement on 'Human Right to Water' in response to the final Ministerial Declaration of the Third World Water Forum of 23 March 2003.
Third World Water Forum, Kyoto (16 - 23 March 2003):
- Preliminary Forum Statement, 21 March 2003
- Ministerial Declaration, 23 March 2003
