Seminar: Access to water - a human right

«Access to water for life is a basic human need and a fundamental right», to cite the latest UNDP Human Development Report. Yet 1.2 billion people have no access to sufficient, clean and affordable water for their everyday needs. If nothing is done about it, that figure will rise to one-third of humanity by 2015. Some 1.8 million children die each year from the consequences of diarrhoea and other diseases caused by unclean water. The global water crisis claims many more victims than wars. It is the outcome of poverty, unequal power relations and lack of rights, and engenders tensions and conflicts.

The right to water has been receiving increasing international attention in recent years thanks to the initiative and militancy of non-governmental organisations in North and South. UN human rights bodies are now dedicating more attention to the issues involved. For example, at the initiative of Germany and Spain, the recently established Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted a resolution calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to produce a report on access to water as a human right.

Attitudes on the part of various governments and some segments of the private sector to the right to water range from scepticism to rejection.

In the context of this situation and in view of the international World Water Day on 22 March, the Swiss Coalition «Water – a public good» held a conference on 16 March, organised by Alliance Sud, with the theme «Access to water – a human right». It drew some 150 participants.

Amongst the speakers pointing out their arguments have been

• Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians, co-founder of the «Blue Planet Project», author of the book «Blue Gold», winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, Ottawa
• Jürg Gerber, Chief Operating Officer at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Member of the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum Water Initiative, Genev
• Rodrigo Gutierrez Rivas, Human rights expert, Researcher of the Legal Research Institute UNAM (National University), member of Espacio DESC of the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water (COMDA), Mexico DF
• Wolfgang Amadeus Brülhart, Head of the Human Rights Section, Political Department IV of the Swiss Foreign Ministry (EDA), Bern
• Rosmarie Bär, Swiss Coalition «Water – a public good», Development Policy Coordinator at Alliance Sud, Bern.
  

Downloads
Statement by Maude Barlow (pdf, 16kB)
Statement by Rodrigo Gutierrez Rivas (pdf, 47kB)
Documentation of all statements in English or German (pdf, 227kB)

Contact: Rosmarie Bär