The human right to water as a creature of global administrative law

Abstract

A global administrative law perspective helps to make sense of the diversity of sources cited in support of the human right to water and sanitation and to explain how and why the concept might exert influence on a wide variety of actors other than states, including international institutions and private-sector investors and operators involved in the provision of water and sanitation services.

Keywords:

• human right to water
• governance
• global administrative law
• privatization
• water and sanitation

Notes

1. See, for example, ICSID Case No. ARB/03/19, Aguas Argentinas S.A., Suez, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A. and Vivendi Universal S.A. v. The Argentine Republic, Order in Response to a Petition for Transparency and Participation as Amicus Curiae (19 May 2005); ICSID Case No. ARB/03/17, Aguas Provinciales de Santa Fe S.A., Suez, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A. and InterAguas Servicios Integrales del Agua S.A. v. The Argentine Republic, Order in Response to a Petition for Participation as Amicus Curiae (17 March 2006); ICSID Case No. ARB/03/19, Suez, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A. and Vivendi Universal S.A. v. The Argentine Republic, Order in Response to a Petition by Five Non-Governmental Organizations for Permission to Make an Amicus Curiae Submission (12 February 2007); and ICSID Case No. ARB/05/22, Biwater Gauff (Tanzania) Ltd. V. United Republic of Tanzania, Procedural Order No. 5 (2 February 2007).

2. See Note 1.

3. This body, commonly referred to as the Human Rights Committee, can also be more accurately referred to as the Committee on Civil and Political Rights which operates under the auspices of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and has provided detailed general Comments on the key provisions of the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including Article 6, see http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/84ab9690ccd81fc7c12563ed0046fae3?Opendocument

4. See the Committee on Civil and Political Rights, General Comment No. 6: The right to life (Article 6), 30 April 1982, para. 5. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/84ab9690ccd81fc7c12563ed0046fae3?Opendocument

5. See CEDAW: U.N. Doc. A/34/46 (1979). Entered into force 1981. Available from: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm

6. CRC: U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989). Entered into force 1990. Available from: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

7. 1949 Geneva Convention III: (1949) 75 UNTS 135. Entered into force 1950.

8. 1949 Geneva Convention IV: (1949) 75 UNTS 287. Entered into force 1950.

9. 1997 UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, (1997) 36 ILM 719 (New York, 21 May 1997, not yet in force).

10. 1999 Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, U.N. Doc. MP.WAT/AC.1/1991/1 (17 June 1999).

11. ILA, Berlin Rules on Water Resources Law (2004), Available at www.asil.org/ilib/WaterReport2004.pdf

12. Convention on Access to Information, PublicParticipation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, (Aarhus, 25 June 1998), 38 ILM 517 (1999).

13. ILO Convention 107 concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries (26 June 1957).

14. ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal peoples in Independent Countries (27 June 1989), 28 ILM 1382 (1989).

15. See note 1.