Much has recently been made of the need for a human right to water to help those in developing countries acheive access to clean water (and sanitation, too). It's a contentious issue - does it really do any good to declare such a human right? Will declaring a human right provide clean water and sanitation? Some are fond of proposing textbook solutions to this difficult problem; others propose throwing more money at it. In each case, people who have no experience doing water work in developing countries weigh in on the issue - and that is their prerogative.
But what about a human right to water in the developed world? What about the Western USA? Do we need such a right?
The folks at the College of Law at Willamette University, the first university in the Western USA, are proposing just such a conference in Salem, OR, 3-5 February 2011. Here is some information from the flyer:
Download HRW Call for Papers SP 2011
The working conference, Implementing the Human Right to Water in the West, will be limited to invited expert participants, including water scholars, policymakers, lawyers, and stakeholders. The conference will begin with a limited number of plenary presentations and panels. However, the bulk of the conference will be devoted to the work of eight small groups in which invited participants examine a single set of issues associated with the conference topic. Participants from each working group will produce a preliminary report addressing their issues and the full conference will adopt a conference report summarizing the working group conclusions and the overall conclusions of the conference.
Accepted papers will be the intellectual fodder for the conference working groups and invited participants will receive the papers relevant to their issue prior to the conference. Authors of accepted papers will be invited and are encouraged to present the paper in person at the conference, either as part of a plenary session or to the relevant working groups. However, authors need not commit to presentation of the paper in person. Authors of accepted papers dealing with law and policy issues will be offered an opportunity to publish those papers in the Willamette Law Review or the Willamette International Law and Dispute Resolution Journal. Selected papers on a variety of topics may be included in a book containing the Conference and Working Group reports.
As we move into the middle of this century, increasing water demands and declining water availability due to climate change, cyclical drought, population growth, and increased pollution make appropriate water allocation increasingly critical in western North America.
The prior appropriation doctrine of Western water law in the
While the Human Right to Water is still being defined and interpreted, the essence of creating or recognizing a Human Right to Water is reprioritizing water uses and assuring that we meet the most important need - human needs - first. Thus, the idea of a Human Right to Water fundamentally challenges our current paradigm in the West about water allocation and use.
Although a Human Right to Water has been recognized internationally, giving all human beings have an intrinsic, protected civil right to use water, the United States has not signed international treaties recognizing this right. Nonetheless, the Human Right to Water may constitute enforceable customary international law. Thus, western states may not be able to avoid incorporating this right into their laws and policies regarding water allocation and use.
Some Western states have made changes in prior appropriation doctrine that incorporate or accommodate the international Human Right to Water to some extent. However, few states have fully implemented the international Human Right to Water and other states may need to make significant modifications in their laws and policies to assure that essential human needs are met before other uses are made of water. Western states can choose to ignore this area of developing law or they can participate in interpreting the international Human Right to Water and in formulating their own concept of what rights each human being should have to use water.
As Western states attempt to accommodate this concept into water law and policies that were premised on a fundamentally different paradigm, many choices must be made about how to define and implement the Human Right to Water. These choices must be made with an understanding of
- the importance of water to rural communities,
- the diverse values, ethical approaches and notions of justice stakeholders bring to water issues,
- the realities of water politics,
- the science and technology dealing with water resources and drivers of water scarcity,
- existing water institutions, law, policy, and programs in the West
- how economic incentives actually function in allocating water and encouraging water conservation, and
- how other states and nations have approached implementing the Human Right to Water.
It is critical to begin work on creating consensus around how to deal with increasing water scarcity and the Human Right to Water. The format of this conference has been chosen specifically to facilitate the creation of such a consensus in the West. Our water scarcity problems are likely to become so acute that we can ill-afford the traditional “Water is for Fightin’ “ approach to water allocation and use.
The convenors are soliciting papers; abstracts are due 1 June 2010 and submitters will be notified by 1 July 2011 with full papers due by 15 November 2011. Consult the flyer for guidelines more information.
If you have questions, please consult Tom Dimitre ([email protected]).
This looks like a fascinating conference. I salute those who proposed it.
"To emphasize the human right of access to drinking water does more than emphasize its importance. It grounds the priority on the bedrock of social and economic rights, it emphasizes the obligations of states parties to ensure access, and it identifies the obligations of states parties to provide support internationally as well as nationally." -- Richard Jolly, UNDP
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