LAWS20009 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: United Nations General Assembly, Rights-Based Approach To Development, Water Resource Management
LECTURE 8: HUMAN RIGHTS (WATER AND SANITATION)
• Rights based approach: anthropocentric mechanism to achieving environmental
improvements – for humans, additionally for the environment
• SDG’s: 2015, goal of clean water (number 6) – replace Millennium DG’s
• MDG’s: failed to meet goals, 1 noted achievement – goal to half the proportion of
the population to safe drinking water and sanitation
• Rio +20: international meeting 2012, document called ‘The Future We Want’
o Eradicating poverty is the greatest challenge we face – requires us to
develop sustainably
o Poverty cannot be alleviated by undertaking destructive
development
o Water is at the core of sustainable development as it is closely
linked to several key global challenges
o The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, to be
progressively realized for our populations with full respect for
national sovereignty
Sustainable Development Water Targets: Goal 6
• Universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water
• Achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation
• Reduce pollution, the proportion of untreated wastewater and increasing
recycling and safe reuse
• Increase water-use efficiency across all sectors
• Implement integrated water resource management
• Protect and restore water-related ecosystems
• Expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing
countries
• Strengthen the participation of local communities
RIGHT TO WATER
• Not expressly recognised in Australia – implicit
• How far does the right to water extend?
• Right to water: helps achievement of other human rights (right to health, right to life), gives equal opportunity to how you
can use water
o Should be able address access, quality of access and quality of water, management of wastewater
• Rights can be legally binding, individual and community based – seek to enforce rights
• Goals: good for targets, yet not enforceable, measurable, shared missions amongst nations
• Right to water and sanitation: seen as techno-centric and infrastructure based – managing with modern approaches with
goal assumed to follow as a result
o Can’t see environmental outcomes just through whether infrastructure is there or not! Need to redefine in
international instruments to include quality of water, not just infrastructure and access to toilets
Right to Sanitation
• Broad area, encumbers several things – not just the right to a toilet
• Aren’t captured in SDG’s, which focus on infrastructure and access to toilets – not protection of water supplies
• Purpose: to get rid of human waste in order to protect water quality
o Collection, disposal and treatment of human wastes
o Household and industrial level – protect waste from industry and commerce waste
o Protection of water supplies
• Wastewater treatment needs to be involved in international instruments, not yet considered as part of sanitation – affects
quality of water
o Uses fossil fuel energy – associated implications of c.c on water security and water supplies
Implicit Rights to Water
• UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR: found through different articles, right to life, health, etc. all been interpreted to include the right to
water
• Rights of water needed to ensure other rights are fulfilled
Lecture Overview
• What should the human rights to
water and sanitation mean?
• Overview of international human
rights law
• Is there a human right to water in
international law
o Implicit and explicit
recognition in treaties
o UN General Assembly
Resolution on the Right to
Water
• What is the scope of the right to
water (and sanitation), and how
does it relate to environmental
protection
• Domestic implementation of the
right to water
o Part of the right to life in
India
o Specific Constitutional
recognition
• Rights and water in Australia
o The Murray-Darling Basin:
and the right of the river and
downstream communities to
water
o Residential water supplies in
Melbourne
Document Summary
Lecture 8: human rights (water and sanitation: rights based approach: anthropocentric mechanism to achieving environmental improvements for humans, additionally for the environment. Sustainable development water targets: goal 6: universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation, reduce pollution, the proportion of untreated wastewater and increasing recycling and safe reuse. Implement integrated water resource management: protect and restore water-related ecosystems, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries, strengthen the participation of local communities. Lecture overview: what should the human rights to water and sanitation mean, overview of international human rights law. Is there a human right to water in international law. Implicit and explicit recognition in treaties: un general assembly. Water: what is the scope of the right to water (and sanitation), and how does it relate to environmental protection, domestic implementation of the right to water, part of the right to life in.
