UNWC Global Initiative Symposium

Here's an announcement on the UNWC Global Initiative Symposium, co-organised by IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science (under the auspices of UNESCO), University of Dundee and WWF, on 5th-8th June 2012, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK

The 1997 UN Watercourses Convention – What Relevance in the 21st Century?

Call for Papers

In 1994 the UN General Assembly made the decision to elaborate a global framework instrument on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses (UN General Assembly Resolution 49/52). The resultant Convention was adopted in 1997 by more than 100 nations. Since the Convention’s adoption over 14 years ago, there has been a heightened recognition of the numerous challenges humanity faces in securing water for all, and a widespread acceptance that governance plays a key role. However, the legal architecture for international watercourses remains fragmented, and the UNWC has not yet entered into force.

In recent years, a coalition of institutions under the general rubric of the UNWC Global Initiative has come together to examine the underlying reasons why the UNWC has not yet entered into force. Additionally, the UNWC Global Initiative has sought to further knowledge and understanding of the relevance of the UNWC in addressing the contemporary pressures on the world’s freshwater resources. As part of the activities of the UNWC Global Initiative, the IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science in collaboration with WWF will be organising a global symposium on the UNWC between 5th and 8th of June 2011. The aim of the symposium is to gather together a wide and diverse range of experts from academia, government, international organisations, civil society, etc, to debate the existing and potential relevance of this global framework instrument.

Towards this endeavour the convenors of the symposium are inviting experts to submit papers on a range of topics related to the UNWC.

Further details are available here