Conclusion

Abstract

In the course of the last years, the human right to water has been largely discussed in international law, international politics and civil society. Since 1992, each 22 March is celebrated as annual “world water day”. The UN named the entire decade 2005–2015 as “The International Decade for Action: Water for Life”. Famously, the UN Millennium Development Goals demand that the proportion of people living in hunger and thirst be halved by 2015. Since 1997, six world water fora have been held, reaffirming on a tri-annual basis that water is one of the most important common goods, and that no person should live deprived of it. Since 2008, Catarina de Albuquerque holds the mandate of the Independent Expert, now called Special Rapporteur, to monitor whether States obey their human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. It is appropriate to state that water has become one of the favorite human rights topics of many western governments and numerous NGOs, and most certainly of the United Nations. Dazzled by all of this “water-mania”, one is easily tempted to forget one important fact: that currently there is not easily a self-standing, comprehensive and at the same time legally binding human right to water in international law. Nevertheless, it can still be said that a human right to water exists in international law as well as in most legal orders—it is just very distinctive and very fragmented. One could say it is a right of its very own kind.

*All cited webpages were last accessed on 1 August 2013.