Water as a human right?

Formally acknowledging water as a human right, and giving content and effect to this right could be a good way of encouraging the international community and governments to enhance their efforts to satisfy basic human needs and to meet the Millennium Development Goals. It could serve to increase the pressure to translate such a right into concrete national and international legal obligations and responsibilities, and to focus attention on the need to resolve conflicts over the use of shared water.

But critical questions arise in relation to a right to water. Why do we need a right to water? What would be the benefits and content of such a right? What mechanisms would be required for its effective implementation? Should the duty to provide basic water and sanitation for all be placed on governments alone, or should the responsibility in this regard be borne also by private actors, both individual and corporate, national as well as international? Is another ‘academic debate’ on this subject warranted when action is really what is necessary?

This paper addresses these critical questions in detail. It not only raises the questions, it also provides the material and analysis necessary to address them seriously. Without claiming to prescribe the answers, the paper seeks to clearly and carefully articulate the issues and to set out the competing arguments and challenges as it explores the contribution that a human right to water could make to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In doing so the paper has provided an excellent platform for critical thinking and informed debate.