Global Issue Paper
Water as a human right
Global Issue Paper No. 11
Published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, September 2004
Following case studies on water rights in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, supplements of this Global Issue Paper, can be downloaded
- Water as a basic human right in Egypt
By Dr. Bayoumi B. Attia - More politics then water: Water rights in Jordan
By Dr. Batir Wardam - Water as a human right: Assessment of water resources and water sector in Lebanon
By Ali Darwish - Water as a human right: The understanding of water in Palestine
By Dr. Karen Assaf
From the content:
The United Nations has deemed 2003 the International Year of Fresh Water. Last March the World Water Forum was held in Japan to remind the World of an increasingly developing crisis. Half of the world’s population is living in unsafe sanitary conditions without access to clean water. A report, drawn up by the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, estimates that three billion of the world's most deprived people live without access to proper sanitation. One billion of them have no access to safe water at all.
The international community has affirmed the human right to water in a number of international treaties, declarations and other documents. Most notably, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in November 2002 a General Comment on the Right to water setting out international standards and obligations relating to the right to water.
Based on the UN concept of water as a human right for selected Arab countries in the Middle East (Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon) it is analysed if and to what extent these concepts are acknowledged. Each country study aims to identify the scale of knowledge of and commitment to the UN concept in the region and is meant to identify the main areas of concern in each country regarding water as a human right.
The paper summarizes the main challenges facing strategic and coordinated action towards the UN concept of water as a human right, identifies what types of processes and institutions needs to be developed to meet the challenges of the concept and provides best practise examples from countries that have shown innovation.
