CURRENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

Moving Ahead in Protecting Freshwater Resources: The International Law Commission's Draft Articles on Transboundary Aquifers

KERSTIN MECHLEM*

Abstract

On 11 December 2008 the UN General Assembly adopted a set of draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers which had been prepared by the International Law Commission (ILC) between 2002 and August 2008. These draft articles are the first official instrument that lays down rules of international law for the management and protection of groundwater, which makes up 97 per cent of the Earth's freshwater resources, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. This article discusses the contribution of the draft articles to the development of international water law. It first provides some background on the importance of shared groundwater resources, then describes the ILC's work on transboundary aquifers, and finally assesses in detail the draft articles and the way ahead.

Key words

• environmental law;
• freshwater resources;
• groundwater;
• International Law Commission;
• international water law

Footnotes

* Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law at the Transitional Justice Institute of the University of Ulster; from 2002 to 2006 Legal Officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and member of an interdisciplinary group convened by UNESCO advising the ILC's Special Rapporteur for Shared Natural Resources, Ambassador Chusei Yamada.