Browsing by Author "Kaavi, Jenni Susanna"

Water is a basis of all life. However, currently in many areas of the world, water scarcity has become a considerable threat to food security, human health and natural ecosystems. Moreover, many people lack the access to safe water for their basic needs. This thesis examines how international human rights law has sought to deal with the issue of access to water. This is done by seeking answers to the following questions. Firstly, is there a human right to water? If there is such a right, what is normative content of that right? Secondly, what are the obstacles on the way of effective enforcement of the right to water regarding both states and private actors? Finally, how useful the right to water has been, and can be expected to be, in the future in relation to water management? The analysis is based on a critical examination of the sources of international law that form the basis for the argument in favour of the human right to water. These include primary sources of international law such as international treaty law and customary norms of international law as well as soft law sources. The global water scarcity situation is also discussed in order to shed light to the complexity of the situation in which the right to water is to be applied. The analysis is complemented with a case study regarding the implementation of the right to water in South Africa. I argue that it is possible to credibly make the argument that there exists a right to water, albeit in a “unique” form. However, I argue that there are number of reasons why the right to water is not capable of having the effect one could hope it to have. Firstly, there are certain inbuilt problems with the right to water itself and enforcing it has been weak and inefficient. Secondly, even when there is political will, states often lack the financial, technical and administrative capacity to implement the right to water. Finally, the water scarcity caused by both climatic conditions and overuse of the resource limit the amount of available water significantly. Right to water competes over the available resources with other important societal functions such as food production and safeguarding livelihoods as well as economic and ecological interests. This complicates the application of the human right to water.