The human right to water
Subtitle: significance, legal status and implications for water allocation
By: Inga T. Winkler
Publisher: Hart Pub.
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Oxford; Portland, Or
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9781849462839
Subjects: Right to water
Description: "The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council recognised the human right to water in 2010. This formal recognition has put the issue high on the international agenda, but by itself leaves many questions unanswered. This book addresses this gap and clarifies the legal status and meaning of the right to water through a detailed analysis of its legal foundations, legal nature, normative content and corresponding State obligations.

The human right to water has wide-ranging implications for the distribution of water. Examining these implications requires putting the right to water into the broader context of different water uses and analysing the linkages and competition with other human rights that depend on water for their realisation. Water allocation is a highly political issue reflecting societal power relations, with current priorities often benefitting the well-off and powerful. Human rights, in contrast, require prioritising the most basic needs of all people. The human right to water has the potential to address these underlying structural causes of the lack of access to water rooted in inequalities and poverty by empowering people to hold the State accountable to live up to its human rights obligations and to demand that their basic needs are met with priority."--Pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-323) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Background : water availability and competing demands; title: Legal foundations of the human right to water; title: Legal characteristics of the human right to water; title: Human rights implications for water allocation; title: Benefits of understanding water as a human right; title: Conclusion and outlook.