Towards an international convention on the human right to water assessing recent proposals for a framework convention on the human right to water

Abstract

The human rights approach prioritizes the right to water, which is essential for securing social justice, dignity, equality and peace. The present paper argues that despite broad implicit support for access to water in existing human rights instruments, an explicit recognition of the human right to water in an international convention is necessary to effectively convert the moral claim into an enforceable legal right. Such a convention should be based on the standards developed in General Comment 15. The thesis highlights the added value of an international convention on the right to water and evaluates two recent draft proposals for an international instrument which were elaborated by ‘Green Cross International’ and ‘Friends of the Right to Water’ in 2005, assuming a rights-based approach.