scholarly journals Privatisation and water governance in Africa: implications of a rights-based approach

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oladejo Olowu
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Efficient Management ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
The Right ◽  
Water Issues

Early in the post-independence era, the control of water resources in many African states was a task of central planning. Regrettably, water management soon became a miry adventure in most African states largely because of warped planning and implementation. This article examines the phenomenon of private sector involvement in water resources management and seeks to understand the effect of such involvement on the right to water in Africa in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. The article explores the continuing relationship between African governments and non-state actors in the management of water resources in the privatisation age. The article further analyses the role of various national water governance initiatives vis-à-vis the efficient management of water resources and the sharp contradictions in their frameworks from a rights-based perspective. It evaluates the normative frameworks of access to water as a human right in Africa and contends that the human being must be placed at the centre of water discourses in assessing all role actors and their responsibilities. Extrapolating from experiences from various states within and outside Africa, this article advocates a rights-based approach to water issues and its value for the ultimate purpose of human- centred development.

The water governance challenge: the discrepancy between what is and what should be

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 799-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Ravnborg ◽  
K. M. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Governance Reform ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Water Research ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
The Right

In 2010, the UN General Assembly declared the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. Yet, findings from the Competing for Water research programme suggest that all too often, people in need of water for domestic purposes lose out to people and companies who claim access to water for productive purposes. Likewise, in many countries, specific water authorities at national as well as basin and watershed level have been formed and assigned the responsibility to allocate water according to the water policy and the associated legal framework. Yet, findings from the Competing for Water research programme show that real-world water allocation takes place through a wide array of institutions, ranging from the rural community, over agreements mediated by local lawyers, district officials and non-governmental organisations, to decisions made in the president's office. The Competing for Water programme entails empirical research conducted in Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zambia. Based on findings from this research, this paper identifies the discrepancies between statutory and actual water governance, analyses the underlying causes and explores the implications for ongoing water governance reform.

Sustainable Access to Water for All: How to Conceptualize and to Implement the Human Right to Water

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gawel ◽  
Wolfgang Bretschneider
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Barriers To Access ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sustainability Framework

After having adopted the un Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) in 2015 including once again the right to water (rtw) for all by 2030 implementation issues are growing in importance now. It is widely acknowledged that even eu Member States, in general, are faced with this challenge. However, any implementation of the rtw requires a sound specification first. Since the rtw commonly refers to enabling sufficient “access” to water the crucial question here is under what conditions “access” ever might be “denied”. Up to now, little progress has been made to give a clear and convincing answer to this question. This article offers an innovative analytical framework of “sustainable access” taking explicitly into account potential barriers to access that may or not refer to sustainability requirements themselves. Thus, social concerns are confronted with aspects of functionality. This allows for an explicit assessment of water supply situations with respect to the rtw in an overall sustainability framework which is particularly in line with the sdg approach.

scholarly journals The Human Right to Water and Unconventional Energy

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 1858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Palmer ◽  
Damien Short ◽  
Walter Auch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

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.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the implementation of IWRM in the lower Oueme valley, south Benin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fêmi Cocker ◽  
Jean-Bosco K. Vodounou ◽  
Jacob A. Yabi
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Efficiency Score ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Efficient Management ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Action Measures ◽  
Development And Management ◽  
Institutional Efficiency

Abstract The objective of this study is to assess the level of application of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in the lower Oueme valley. In order to achieve this, interviews with the actors' families allowed, on the basis of the survey on indicator 6.5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to represent the degree of implementation of IWRM in the lower Oueme valley using a United Nations (UN) form. The results of this analysis reveal a low level of IWRM implementation with a score of 31 on a scale of 0–100. The weaknesses identified are mainly related to the lack of funding (score of 20/100) to cover all aspects of the development and management of water resources. Inadequate instruments or tools (score of 25/100) to enable decision-makers and users to make rational and informed decisions between different options and action measures, the unfavourable environment (score of 35/100) and finally weak institutional efficiency (score of 45/100), intersectoral coordination, and the involvement of various other stakeholders, are all evils that undermine the efficient management of water resources in the lower valley of Oueme.

The Role of Information Institutions in Promoting Information Literacy and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in the Post-Truth Era

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Role Of Information

The right to access government information has been a key element of sustainable development since the 1992 Rio Declaration. It is further recognized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, governments are through open government initiatives making information available to the citizens. This is based on a supposition that everyone is information literate and yet this is not the case. Information literacy is defined as the ability to be able to act on the information that is provided to us citizens. Being able to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information is an ability that is crucial to the citizens' participation in society. It requires individuals to be in possession of a set of skills that can enable them to recognize when information is needed to be able to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. Information institutions have been the gateways to knowledge, and hence, their resources and services have been crucial to the development of information literate, creative, and innovative societies. This study sought to establish how the information institutions in Sweden were promoting information literacy in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 16 amidst the post-truth era. The author has applied a qualitative research methodology where interviews have been used as a data collecting technique.

The Role of Information Institutions in Promoting Information Literacy and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in the Post-Truth Era

2022 ◽  
pp. 1179-1200
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Role Of Information

The right to access government information has been a key element of sustainable development since the 1992 Rio Declaration. It is further recognized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, governments are through open government initiatives making information available to the citizens. This is based on a supposition that everyone is information literate and yet this is not the case. Information literacy is defined as the ability to be able to act on the information that is provided to us citizens. Being able to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information is an ability that is crucial to the citizens' participation in society. It requires individuals to be in possession of a set of skills that can enable them to recognize when information is needed to be able to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. Information institutions have been the gateways to knowledge, and hence, their resources and services have been crucial to the development of information literate, creative, and innovative societies. This study sought to establish how the information institutions in Sweden were promoting information literacy in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 16 amidst the post-truth era. The author has applied a qualitative research methodology where interviews have been used as a data collecting technique.

The Human Right to Health and the Virtue of Creative Resolve

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-58
Author(s):  
Nicole Hassoun
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
The Right

Some maintain that people lack a human right to health because this right cannot provide guidance for distributing scarce resources. Even if the skeptics are right on this point, the second chapter suggests that is not a reason to reject the right; the role of the human right to health is to provide a kind of hope that can foster the virtue of creative resolve. This resolve is a fundamental commitment to finding creative solutions to what appear to be tragic dilemmas. Rather than helping one decide how to ration scarce resources, the human right to health provides reason to find ways to fulfill everyone’s claims. The hope this right provides gives us a response to apparent tragedy in motivating us to search for ways of avoiding it—rather than an account of distributive justice.

The Right to Health

2018 ◽  
pp. 231-264
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Personal Integrity ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

Is health a human right? Many would maintain that it is not. On this view health and ill-health are due to natural causes, not to State actions. Others are concerned that health raises too many polycentric problems to be dealt with through justiciable human rights. These contestations have shaped the way in which the right to health is understood. Section II sketches out the health context. Section III considers jurisdictions in which there is no express right to health, but a right has been derived from rights to life, personal integrity, or privacy. Section IV contrasts this approach with jurisdictions with an express right to health. Section V examines the role of the right to equality, while section VI focuses on reproductive health. The final section returns to the challenges of polycentricity and the extent to which a justiciable right can address systemic issues rather than individual rights to medication.

scholarly journals The essential role of law in achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i32-i35
Author(s):  
Dineke Zeegers Paget ◽  
David Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

Abstract In this article, we examine the essential role of law in achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following the World Health Organization’s broad definition of health, all SDGs can be seen to impact on human health and hence the health goal (SDG3) should be right at the centre of the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We note recent research on the contribution of law, including international human rights law, to achieving health for all and discuss the role of law in addressing seven emerging health challenges. Law can and should play an important role in achieving all health-related SDGs, by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to health, ensuring that no one is left behind.

scholarly journals Facing financialization in the housing sector: A human right to adequate housing for all

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Ingrid Leijten ◽  
Kaisa de Bel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Right

Housing is increasingly seen as a vehicle for wealth accumulation rather than a social good. ‘Financialization’ of housing refers to the expanding and dominant role of financial markets and corporations in the field of housing, leading to unaffordable and insufficient housing and discrimination. Although clearly linked to the right to adequate housing, financialization and its effects are not often viewed from a human rights perspective. This article fleshes out this important link by illuminating the standards set in relation to the right to adequate housing enshrined in Article 11(1) ICESCR. It is shown that recently, human rights bodies have confronted the issue of financialization more directly, translating general requirements to this particular issue. Moreover, efforts at UN level are mirrored in initiatives at the local level, signalling the beginning of a shift towards a paradigm that complies with human rights. The financialization of housing and the response of human rights also allow for addressing a more general issue, namely the potential of majority protection in times of human rights backlash. In this regard, it is worth emphasising that human rights such as the right to adequate housing protect not only the extreme poor. In the context of financialization, this may contribute to better housing conditions as well as reconnect people to their human rights.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document