2.3 Peace Indicators
2.3.2 Human rights and Water
Positive peace means the people’s rights to water, where everyone has sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and productive use. Water is a basic need for human societies. Water is to be governed by human rights, not corporate strategies. The right to water is enshrined in statutes of the international law. It is recognised in Article 24, Section 2(c) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), clearly stating that the child has a right to clean drinking water.6 Article 14.2 of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) states that rural women have a right to enjoy adequate living conditions particularly in relation to water supply.7 Article 15 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights obliges States Parties to provide women with access to clean drinking water.8 The United Nations Committee
6 Convention on the Rights of the Child. (1990). Retrieved from www.ohchr.org>professionalInterest>crc
7 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979. Entry into force 3 September 1981. Retrieved from www.un.org>daw>cedaw
8 African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986. Retrieved from www.humanrights.se>uploads>2012/01
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on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights commented that the right to water is indispensable for leading a life of human dignity.9
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15 (2003), gives further useful guidance on how the right to water is to be interpreted. According to the comment, while adequacy of water required for the rights may vary according to different conditions, there are certain minimum standards that should not vary:
• the water supply for each person must be sufficient and continuous for personal and domestic uses [availability],
• the water must be safe; that means, amongst other things, that it should be of acceptable colour, odour and taste [quality], and
• the water must be accessible to everyone without discrimination [accessibility], and accessibility includes physical, economic and informational accessibility.10
The International Conference on Water and the Environment, held in Dublin, Ireland in January 1992, issued the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development.11 This document laid the groundwork for, and reflects the thinking on, freshwater resources found in Chapter 18 in Agenda 21. The Dublin conference identified four guiding principles for action at the local and national levels: 1) Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment; 2) Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policymakers at all levels; 3) Women play a central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water; and 4) Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognised as an economic good.
Based on the above principles, various action scenarios were envisaged to fulfil the human right to water. Such actions as capacity building, alleviating poverty and waterborne diseases and enhancing agricultural production of the rural population, were deemed necessary for the realisation of this right.
International humanitarian law also makes provision for the right to water during armed conflict. It is stated in Article 21 and 25 of the Geneva Convention (1949) that sufficient
9 General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water. Adopted at the 29th Session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on 20 January 2003. Retrieved from www.refworld.org>pdfid
10 ibid.
11 1992 Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development. Principle No 1-4. Retrieved from www.cawater-info.net>library>eng>d
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drinking water is to be supplied to prisoners of war and other detainees.12 Prisoners of war and other detainees are to be provided with shower and bath facilities and water, soap and other facilities for their daily personal toilet washing requirements. WHO and UNICEF in the global water supply and sanitation report (2000), set a minimum of 20 litres of safe drinking water per person per day and water sources must be located within reasonable distance from the household.
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 emphasised that every state has the responsibility to “respect, protect and promote human rights”.13 Goal Six seeks to,
“ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Target 6.3 states that by 2030, water quality must be improved by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimising release of hazardous chemicals and materials. Knox (2015, p. 530) argued that these targets are important, but they need more specific indicators. Harvey (2008, p. 116) reiterated that in relation to the human right to water, providing sustainable access to safe water through appropriate services has the potential to promote justice and dignity, and to empower the poor.
Local constitutions provide the most reliable overall assurance in fortifying the right to water within the context of national legal structure, as they delineate the dominant law of the State within which all subordinate knots of the legal support beams must be compliant, and which cannot easily be changed. De Albuquerque (2014, p 3) noted that constitutional guarantees serve as a reference for drafting and interpreting subordinate laws, regulations and policies.
Hall and Lobina (2012, p. 16) posited that in 2004, Uruguay became the first nation to include a specific assurance of the human right to water and sanitation in its Constitution. In Argentina, the constitutional rights to health and a clean environment have been interpreted as including the human right to clean water.14
In Africa, the right to water is an integral part of national constitutions. Huggins (2000) noted that in Tanzania, access to domestic water is a constitutional right. The right to water is in the
12 Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of 12 August 1949. Retrieved from https://www.icrc.org>eng>icrc-002-0173
13 United Nations Conference on Sustainable development. (2012). Retrieved from www.un.org>disabilities>documents
14 Constitution of the Argentine Nation. Retrieved from www.wipo.int>wipolex>details
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South African Constitution15 where it obliges the state to protect the citizens’ right to access water in sufficient quantities. According to Kidd (2011, p. 5), the Constitution requires the state to take “reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to water”. To ensure the equitable provision of water, a country must assure the rule of law and basic human rights – including the right to water.
Barker (2010), in Monrivile and Rodina (2013, p.152), argued that “human rights are not the solution but rather a strategy for creating the context in which claims for social justice can be pursued”.
De Albuquerque (2014, pp. 13-25) summarised general human rights principles that relate to the process of accomplishing the specific mandate of human rights to access water. These are:
non-discrimination and equality, information, participation and accountability. Participation mechanisms as a major peace indicator, have already been considered in sub-section 2.3.1. De Albuquerque (2014, p. 13) argued that states should assure non-discrimination and equality in its constitutions, laws, regulations and policies. Courts should be used to ensure that specification mechanisms are adhered to.
States must monitor the implementation of measures that aim to ensure equality.
Policies and plans should use or develop appropriate indicators and benchmarks to assess both the steps taken and the results achieved in their attempts to eliminate discrimination in access to water (…) services. (p. 16)
Ashton (2002, p. 236) remarked that the major challenge is hidden discrimination, whereby discriminatory practices are concealed in practices claimed to be neutral. In the United States of America, regulation of water services in certain rural areas provides for water quality standards lower than those that in urban settlements. This has a negative impact on poorer rural populations, who are not necessarily in a position either to purchase safe water or to remain informed about water quality standards (Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, Mission to the United States of America, 2011). Mbonile (2005, p. 62) argued that it is the role of decision makers like chiefs and clan leaders to ensure that specific rights are granted to every person in the community. From the above discussion, it is clear that it is
15 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa No. 108 of 1996. Retrieved from www.gov.za>sites>files>images
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necessary to ensure that every community has equitable access to available water resources to meet their basic human needs.
Policies should ensure that sufficient resources are dedicated to ensuring accessibility to information, and that access to information concerning water services is available to all (see De Albuquerque, 2014, p. 17). States need to design policies and plans for more transparency, and increase chances of access to information. This includes the designing of processes that ensure operative and appropriate answers to information requests, and propagating information through channels that are accessible to all, for example, pamphlets, posters, radio and TV programmes, social media, booklets and manuals translated into local languages.
Accountability and access to justice should involve judicial, administrative, regulatory and other statutory bodies, as well as a range of other processes (p. 26). Many constitutions also establish constitutional bodies that hear individual complaints, by means of ombudspersons (appointed officials to investigate complaints on behalf of individuals such as water users) or human rights commissions. This can help ensure that remedial mechanisms are accessible. For example, the Constitution of Argentina, 1994, Section 86 states that:
The Ombudsperson is an independent authority created within the sphere of the National Congress, operating with full autonomy and without receiving instructions from any other authority. The mission of the Ombudsperson is the defence and protection of human rights and other rights, guarantees and interests contained in this Constitution and the laws, in the face of deeds, acts or omissions of the Administration; as well as the control of public administrative functions. The Ombudsperson has the capacity to be a party in a lawsuit. He is appointed and removed by Congress with the vote of two-thirds of the members present of each House. He has the immunities and privileges of legislators. He shall hold office for the term of five years and may only be re-appointed once. The organisation and operation of this body shall be ruled by a special law.16
Multi-National Companies (MNCs) can limit local people’s rights to water. Investors look for available land with sources of water. They ensure that this access is included in the lease contracts to ensure the profitability of their investments. These guarantees effectively give the
16 Constitution of the Argentine Nation 1994, Section 86. Retrieved from www.wipo.int>wipolex>details
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investor priority over other users, and customary users rarely have any formal rights. A report on Mali by IIED (2011, p. 2) found that contracts gave investors more than half of the dry season critical reserve of water while local residents were left out of the negotiating process and their customary rights were ignored. Therefore, “African governments are signing away water rights for decades with insufficient regard for how this will affect millions of local users, including fishing, farming and pastoralist communities” (Hall & Lobina, 2012, p. 6). In other African countries, successful campaigns have forced some governments to back down.
According to Hall and Lobina (2012, p. 8) in Madagascar, local protests forced the government to cancel a deal by South Korean Multi-National Daewoo to physically export 1 % of Faraony River’s flow to Saudi Arabia. It also forced the government to resign.