New Right to Water website launched

(BY HUGO)

On 10 december, WaterAid launched a new human rights to water and sanitation website. Some of the main pages of the site related to:

- The legal framework for the human rights to water and sanitation

- How to use the human rights-based approach (HRBA) in water developement

- Recent developments in international law with respects to the human rights to water and sanitation

The web site provides a good introduction to these issues. The site represents the HR advocacy position on the human right to water debate. For example, the site establishes the traditional dichotomy between States - governments, public officials, service providers - as duty bearers and citizens as rights holders. However, the site refers to the plurality of interpretations on what constitutes the HRBA to water (the History of a rights based approach to development section still seems under construction).

For a critical analysis on these issues, see «A Clash of Paradigms in the Water Sector? Tensions and Synergies Between Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to Development».

A forthcoming book likely to provide significant substance on the reflection about HRBA and the rights to water is due to be published soon: Anna Russell & Malcolm Langford (eds), The Right to Water: Theory, Practice and Prospects (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).