Success of the national campaign for the Right to Water in French Law
Right to Water Campaign in Italy
GCI believes that access to a reliable and safe supply of water for essential human consumption and basic sanitation is a universal human right that should be recognised by all nations. In 2004 Mikhail Gorbachev announced that GCI would champion a global campaign for the Right to Water. The primary aim of this campaign is to empower national and local authorities with the ability and knowledge of how to integrate the Right to Water into their own national constitutions and legislation, thus fuelling the movement to establish a Global Convention on the Right to Water. So far, the Right to Water campaign has been successful in raising global awareness of the need for national governments to move towards an international agreement that legally binds each nation to recognise, protect and implement the human right to water. Even though the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has already recognised the right to water as a fundamental right, this decision is not legally binding on states and it remains essential to encourage national governments to officially acknowledge the right to water as a guaranteed human right. GCI is also promoting the UN Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, adopted in 1997, with the primary objective of gathering the required number of signatories for the convention to enter into force.
The Right to Water concept
Most human and environmental rights are defined as such by instruments of international law, such as a treaty or convention. Green Cross International believes that the right to water should be no different. Like climate and biodiversity, the right to water deserves a legally-binding international instrument dedicated to its protection. GCI and President Gorbachev are fully engaged in this campaign. Because the right to water is universal and inalienable, Green Cross lends a strong voice to the call for the adoption of a convention that would recognise this and make it a priority in political decision-making. What had previously been an awareness-raising campaign is thus transforming into a powerful force for action in international law.
The Right to Water Campaign - Background
Following the Petition for a Global Water Convention, launched in 2002 in Lyon during the first Earth Dialogues, it was decided, along with the International Secretariat of Water (ISW) and the Maghreb-Machreq Alliance for Water (ALMAE), that the Water Convention project would be launched at the first World Assembly of Water Wisdom (WAWW) held during the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003. The second WAWW was held in Barcelona during the Universal Forum of Cultures in 2004, where the first draft of the Fundamental Principles for a Global Convention on the Right to Water was adopted. The text was improved by experts and is currently being proposed to governments for their consideration. The website www.watertreaty.org, established by GCI in 2005, encourages visitors to sign a petition that endorses international legal action on the convention. It is available in eight different languages, which allows people from across the globe to take action for a cause that is important to all human beings.
