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The Coming Water Crisis: A Common Concern of Humankind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2012

Edith Brown Weiss*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, United States. Email: weiss@law.georgetown.edu.

Abstract

This essay argues that fresh water, its availability and use, should now be recognized as ‘a common concern of humankind’, much as climate change was recognized as a ‘common concern of humankind’ in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and conservation of biodiversity was recognized as a ‘common concern of humankind’ in the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. This would respond to the many linkages between what happens in one area with the demand for and the supply of fresh water in other areas. It would take into account the scientific characteristics of the hydrological cycle, address the growing commodification of water in the form of transboundary water markets and virtual water transfers through food production and trade, and respect the efforts to identify a human right to water.

Type
Invited Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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14 E.g., Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 4 Dec. 1996, Art. 27(1)(b) (‘Everyone has the right to have access to (b) sufficient food and water’); the Constitution of the Republic of Bolivia, 2009; and the Constitution of the Republic of Uruguay, Arts. 47 and 188.

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26 N. 1 above.

27 N. 2 above.

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30 N. 8 above.

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33 UNEP Experts Report, n. 31 above.

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36 Agreement on Agriculture and Agreement on Countervailing Measures, 15 April 1994, available at: http://www.wto.org.