Search

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, which entered into full force in August 2017, was signed by more than 100 countries, including several where artisanal and small-scale gold mining is practised, ...

In 2007, the six riparian countries of the Volta Basin adopted the Convention on the Status of the Volta River and the Establishment of Volta Basin Authority (Volta Basin Convention). This legal framework is strongly inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC). However, the Volta Basin Convention merely states the major international river management principles without specifying either the terms or the procedures for their implementation. This article examines the potential contribution of the UNWC provisions to the development of a water charter.

This article evaluates how the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses can be interpreted and implemented to facilitate responsible and equitable implementation of water augmentation technology. Innovation in technology that has the potential to augment water supplies, like desalination or cloud seeding, may aggravate or mitigate conflict over shared international rivers or lakes. On the one hand, international water disputes may arise due to water scarcity, and augmentation mitigates scarcity. On the other hand, wealthy nations may secure increased water supplies through technological innovations while externalizing the costs of those innovations to poorer nations.

In 1997, South Africa became an inaugural party to the United Nations Watercourses Convention. With the convention entering into force in August 2014, South Africa is now bound by all of its provisions, including those relating to ‘no significant harm’ and liability for transboundary pollution. Article 32, the principle of ‘non-discrimination’, provides recourse for foreigners experiencing or under imminent threat of transboundary harm to seek compensation in the jurisdiction where the alleged harm originated. This article investigates the possibility under the convention of pursuing liability for transboundary acid mine drainage pollution originating in South Africa harming the Olifants-Limpopo Rivers.

This article describes the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and partners for developing transboundary cooperation in four basins (Chu-Talas, Kura, Drin and Dniester Rivers) and the progress achieved. The work has been based on the application of international water law as reflected in the UNECE Water Convention and guided by the body of experience accumulated under the convention. Experiences from this work are described and conclusions drawn.

Based on a consideration of the interrelationships between cooperation, institutions and governance, this article explores the governance of transboundary wetlands, or wetlands within transboundary basins, and the potential role of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) in the promotion of transboundary water cooperation.

This article analyzes Turkey’s transboundary water policy by examining its institutional framework and basic principles. It explores the reasons why Turkey voted against the UN Watercourses Convention. Turkey’s harmonization with the water law of the European Union is also scrutinized with an aim to assess its implications for transboundary water policy making. Turkish water diplomacy faces new challenges, such as the devastating impacts of prolonged droughts as well as ongoing instability and conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Hence, it is imperative for Turkey to systematically reconcile its water policy objectives in accordance with the global norms that are adopted in this field.

A set of water management principles are analyzed and form the basis for a template for a model transboundary agreement for international river basins. The tenets of international water law, which support the selection of the principles, are analyzed. The principles include equitable and reasonable utilization and the obligation to not cause significant harm as the interrelated and overarching principles of international watercourse management. The development of a template is undertaken because ratification of the 1997 UN watercourses convention is at hand and a template consistent with this convention may facilitate the protection of shared water resources.

This article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in light of the UN Watercourses Convention. The IWT is, to a large extent, still relevant but must incorporate contemporary environmental standards and the social realities that are impacting water resources. Proposals for improving the IWT include the incorporation of provisions related to joint research initiatives, optimal use of available resources through mutually negotiated trade-offs, a joint climate change adaptation strategy, consideration of environmental flow needs, and joint water development and energy generation.

The UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation calls on governments to ratify and implement the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC) in accordance with Target 7C of the Millennium Development Goals concerning the provision of sufficient water to sustain human life. This call makes clear the dynamic interaction between two different legal regimes: human rights and international water law. With a view to enhancing the interaction between these two regimes, this paper proposes a new human rights–based approach to the interpretation of UNWC founded upon a state's positive obligations.

China shares 40 major transboundary watercourses with 16 countries. This paper surveys China's transboundary water treaty practice and compares it to the core principles of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC). Despite a growing watercourse treaty practice stretching back some 60 years, China's agreements in this field are relatively unsophisticated. The authors conclude that China's transboundary water treaty practice would benefit from some of the guidelines set forth under the UNWC.

The “factors relevant to equitable and reasonable utilization” of a watercourse expressed in Article 6 of the UN Watercourses Convention were incorporated into an Excel model using an analytical hierarchy process to examine how the article guides water allocation between countries within transboundary basins. This model was employed in training from 2008 to 2011 with scientists from transboundary basins including the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers. Contrasting these results with those from a model designed to explore water sharing from a sectoral-growth perspective indicates that Article 6, in its current formulation, cannot guide adjustments to current water shares between countries.

The indisputable accomplishment of the UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC) is the promotion of general principles of international water law at the universal level. For states sharing freshwater resources, cooperation is indispensable for achieving equitable and reasonable utilization, preventing significant harm and protecting shared ecosystems. The UNWC highlights this importance through the comprehensive codification of cooperation obligations and explicit recognition of the duty to cooperate as one of the general principles of international water law. This article traces the genesis of this recognition and highlights the convention's invaluable contribution in promoting international cooperation in the management of transboundary water resources.

This paper explores how the UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC) has impacted the development of the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). The role of the UNWC regarding issues of conflict and cooperation in the Nile River basin prefaces a comparative analysis of the work of the International Law Commission (ILC), the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the CFA concerning the most controversial legal issues therein. This paper concludes that the work of the ILC and the UNGA on the UNWC will continue to influence the emerging watercourse agreement in the Nile Basin.

This paper proposes a framework for the operationalization of Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention to guide an interpretation of the obligation to preserve ecosystems of international watercourses under the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention together with the relevant environmental protection provisions in the Ramsar and Biodiversity Conventions. An interpretation of the obligation to preserve freshwater ecosystems that takes into account subsequent development in other relevant treaty regimes reinforces international legal understanding on the preservation of ecosystems and strengthens the normativity of the obligation to preserve.

In 2008 the United Nations International Law Commission finalized Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers; they were annexed to a United Nations General Assembly resolution later that year. In Autumn 2011, the General Assembly will decide on the final form of these articles. Unfortunately, the articles overlap with the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention and contain an even more serious flaw: they introduce the novel and potentially dangerous concept that a state has sovereignty over the portion of a transboundary aquifer located within its territory. After providing background on the Draft Articles, this paper proposes possible remedies for these problems.

After about 27 years of extensive preparatory work and formal and informal deliberations, the United Nations General Assembly adopted on May 21, 1997, by a large majority, the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The adoption of the Convention was hailed as a major breakthrough and as an historical moment in the evolution of international water law. However, ten years after its adoption, the Convention has not yet entered into force. This article reviews the history, basic features and status of the Convention, analyzes the reasons for the reluctance of states to become parties to it, and examines its role and prospects.

The “Convention on Co-operation for Protection and Sustainable Use of Portuguese-Spanish River Basins,” effective since January 2000, corresponds to a new and expected phase on bilateral water resources issues, applying to a basin-wide ecosystem protection of all shared rivers and aiming at risk prevention improvement on those basins. After a brief analysis of shared water resources and uses and of the current and foreseen Portuguese water resources planning, legal, and institutional contexts, an identification is made of water problems to be solved in common or bilaterally and some of the downstream impacts. Thereafter, a brief description of the Convention provisions is presented, relating it to International Law and to European Union (EU) water policy, namely to the Water Framework Directive. The compatibility of both active documents is analyzed, as well as the needs for institutional capacity building and for monitoring their application, with special emphasis on the Portuguese case, taking ...

Spain and Portugal share a substantial part of their water resources: basins of the MinTo, Limia, Duero, Tajo, and Guadiana Rivers. The 1964 and the 1968 Agreements are good examples of the cooperation possibilities between countries in this field. Given that these Agreements have been totally developed, that new questions have appeared on the international scene, and given the political, economic, and social evolution of both countries there is a need to reach a new agreement. Conversations were initiated in 1993 and concluded in 1998 with the signing of the Albufeira Convention. This agreement is based on the wealth of experience accumulated by both countries, and it establishes a framework for the exploitation and protection of water resources, acknowledging each country's right to manage the waters within its territory. The agreement, which is applied to all the basins, deals with situations derived from extreme phenomena, such as droughts and floods in the same way as the problems derived fr...