A Legal Analysis of Linking Human Right Approach to Access to Water and Sharing of Trans-Boundary Rivers in South Asia

Author(s):  
Stellina Jolly
Author(s):  
Robert Palmer ◽  
Damien Short ◽  
Walter Auch

Access to water, in sufficient quantities and of sufficient quality is vital for human health. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (in General Comment 15, drafted 2002) argued that access to water was a condition for the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and thus a human right. On 28 July 2010 the United Nations General Assembly declared safe and clean drinking water and sanitation a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. This paper charts the international legal development of the right to water and its relevance to discussions surrounding the growth of unconventional energy and its heavy reliance on water. We consider key data from the country with arguably the most mature and extensive industry, the USA, and highlight the implications for water usage and water rights. We conclude that, given the weight of testimony of local people from our research, along with data from scientific literature, non-governmental organization (NGO) and other policy reports, that the right to water for residents living near fracking sites is likely to be severely curtailed. Even so, from the data presented here, we argue that the major issue regarding water use is the shifting of the resource from society to industry and the demonstrable lack of supply-side price signal that would demand that the industry reduce or stabilize its water demand per unit of energy produced. Thus, in the US context alone, there is considerable evidence that the human right to water will be seriously undermined by the growth of the unconventional oil and gas industry, and given its spread around the globe this could soon become a global human rights issue.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Bilal Dewansyah ◽  
Ratu Durotun Nafisah

Abstract Article 28G(2) in Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution reflects a human rights approach to asylum; it guarantees “the right to obtain political asylum from another country,” together with freedom from torture. It imposes an obligation upon the state to give access to basic rights to those to whom it offers asylum, following an appropriate determination procedure. By contrast, in Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 concerning the Treatment of Refugees, the Indonesian government’s response to asylum seekers and refugees is conceptualized as “humanitarian assistance,” and through a politicized and securitized immigration-control approach. We argue that the competition between these three approaches—the human right to asylum, humanitarianism, and immigration control—constitutes a “triangulation” of asylum and refugee protection in Indonesia, in which the latter two prevail. In light of this framework, this article provides a socio-political and legal analysis of why Article 28G(2) has not been widely accepted as the basis of asylum and refugee protection in Indonesia.


Author(s):  
Celso Maran de Oliveira

Access to potable water is absolutely essential to the maintenance of life, as well as to provide regular exercise of other human rights. The lack of access to water in sufficient quantity or access to non-potable water may cause serious and irreparable damage to people. This paper investigates the evolution of international and national recognition of this fundamental human right, whether implicit or explicit. This was accomplished by the study of international human rights treaties, bibliographic information on water resources and their corresponding legal systems, national and international. The results suggest that sustainable access to drinking water is a fundamental human right in the context of international relations and the State. Further, even without explicitly stating this right in the Constitution of 1988, Brazil has incorporated the main international provisions on the subject, but this right must be acknowledged according to the principles of non-typical fundamental rights and the dignity of the human person. This right should be universally guaranteed by the Government in sufficient quantity and quality, regardless of the economic resources of individuals.


2015 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 741-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Flores Baquero ◽  
A. Jiménez Fdez. de Palencia ◽  
A. Pérez Foguet

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Walters

Improving access to water and sanitation for vulnerable groups has been a significant development priority in recent decades and this has been coupled with calls for water and sanitation to be recognised as fundamental human rights. However, to date there has been very limited attention on the right to water and sanitation for homeless people, despite their high vulnerability to a range of water and sanitation insecurities. Drawing on empirical data from the Indian cities of Delhi and Bangalore, this paper examines homelessness and the right to water and sanitation. It highlights the everyday practices and experiences of homeless people in their efforts to access water and sanitation, and sheds light on some of the factors that contribute to their water and sanitation insecurity. It concludes that addressing the human right to water and sanitation for homeless people will require going beyond a technical and sector approach, to the more challenging task of tackling the complex factors that create and sustain their vulnerability and marginality in urban spaces.


2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 521-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Humby ◽  
Maryse Grandbois

The right of access to sufficient water in the South African Constitution has for long been regarded as progressive in a global context where the human right to water is still a subject of contention. In its recent decision handed down in the Mazibuko matter, the South African Constitutional Court interpreted the right of access to sufficient water for the first time and clarified the nature of the State’s obligations which flow from this right. It also commented upon the role of the courts in adjudicating the human right to water. This article describes the passage of the Mazibuko matter and the manner in which the lower courts interpreted the right of access to “sufficient water” as well as outlining the Constitutional Court’s decision in the context of access to water services provision in South Africa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-217
Author(s):  
Stéphanie De Coensel

The conflict in Syria and Iraq has raised the debate on foreign fighters to unprecedented levels. The international community expressed grave concern over this acute and growing threat and addressed the problem by, inter alia, obliging States to criminalize conduct related to travel for terrorist purposes, including acts of facilitating and funding such travel. Member States are free to choose the manner of implementation, leading to different approaches on a domestic level. This contribution aims to subject the criminal law approach regarding foreign fighters in four Western-European countries (i.e. Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom) to a legitimacy test. The longstanding principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and legality constitute the backbone of this legitimacy test. A critical-legal analysis demonstrates the expansion of the scope of criminal liability to a pre-crime era and examines whether this expansion conflicts with the ultima ratio premise of criminal law and the freedom of movement as a fundamental human right.


2020 ◽  
pp. 140-162
Author(s):  
Celia Fernández Aller

It is not true that the idea of the right to subsistence should not give rise to much controversy. In fact, social rights are not considered as fundamental rights by everyone. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether abstract social rights –and the right to subsistence in particular- should be put in constitutions and laws and if judges should be given powers to interpret them. The philosophical foundations and the content of the right are studied and five great challenges are presented, although the most powerful one is to focus on the social and political enforceability of the fundamental right to subsistence. Assessing the effectiveness of the right to subsistence, and the right to food particularly, is a complex issue. In the legal discourse, the question seems to be only suggested.  Even when the Constitutions expressly recognize this right in some countries, its implementation faces many constraints. The progressive realization of ESC rights requires a complex interaction of policies and programs in a wide range of sectors and institutions.The scientific method used in this work is the legal-sociological method, regarding the understanding of the rules, the lack of them, their effectiveness,  etc.   Several methodological techniques have been used, such as social and legal analysis, legal deduction and induction, description and interdisciplinarity.


Author(s):  
A. W. Jayawardena

The phrase inconvenient truth associated with global warming and climate change has received a great deal of publicity some years back. The objective of this article is to highlight a different kind of inconvenient truth which affects about 29% of the world population. It is about the lack of access to safe drinking water that results in over 1.2 million preventable deaths annually. The first two targets of UN sustainable development goal 6 (SDG6) aim at providing universal, affordable and sustainable access to “water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)”.  Recognizing the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a basic human right, issues related to this problem as well as possible options to alleviate the problem are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 996-1011
Author(s):  
Uma Dey Sarkar ◽  
Bikramaditya K. Choudhary

Abstract International organizations firmly ratifying the human right to water though neoliberal reforms have pushed for increasing commodification and marketization of water. Accelerated urbanization in cities of the Global South have intensified problems associated with access to water and innovative solutions such as water kiosks are seen as the future of water access in underserved areas. This paper studies access to potable water in four resettlement colonies of Delhi with a focus on the water kiosks which operate in these colonies. Tracing the broader reforms which have been initiated in the public utility (Delhi Jal Board), the paper investigates the model of water kiosk of these colonies and the extent to which access to water has been impacted by the introduction of the water kiosks. Based on the processes of changes and continuities in the waterscapes of formal yet marginal spaces in the city and concomitant reconfigurations in urban governance, the paper argues that water kiosks serve to reproduce the uneven power relations embedded in the process of neoliberal urbanization.


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