Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The no significant harm principle and the human right to water

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Access to water has been recognized as an international human right at least since 2010, when both the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council adopted resolutions to this effect. The no significant harm principle can be found in the UN Watercourses Convention, and in numerous other global, regional, and watercourse-specific treaties. This paper provides an explanation of how the no significant harm principle and the human right to water supplement each other, by jointly protecting both the State and the individual from significant harm done, by another State, to a watercourse on which they depend. The dispute between Chile and Bolivia relating to the status and use of the Silala waters is used as a case study, to illustrate the way in which these two international legal regimes (international water law and international human rights law) supplement each other.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

CEDAW:

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

CESCR:

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

CRC:

Convention on the Rights of the Child

CRPD:

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

FCAB:

Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia

HRC:

Human Rights Council

ICCPR:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICESCR:

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

ICJ:

International Court of Justice

ILA:

International Law Association

ILC:

International Law Commission

UDHR:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

UN:

United Nations

UNGA:

United Nations General Assembly

WCC:

Watercourses Convention

References

  • Arbitral Tribunal. (1957). Arbitral Tribunal, Lake Lanoux Arbitration (France/Spain), Arbitral Award of 16 November 1957.

  • Bórquez, G. M. (2014). Chile/Bolivia: ¿Es El Río Silala Un Factor De Tensión Secundario?. Revista De Marina.

  • Bulto, T. S. (2014). The extraterritorial application of the human right to water in Africa (p. 2014). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • CEDAW. (1979). Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, adopted in New York, on 18 December 1979, entry into force 3 September 1981. Bolivia is a party since 8 June 1990; Chile since 7 December 1989.

  • CESCR. (1991). United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11, paragraph 1, of the Covenant), adopted 13 December 1991, UN Doc E/1992/23.

  • CESCR. (2000). United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12 of the Covenant), adopted 11 August 2000, UNDoc E/C.12/2000/4.

  • CESCR. (2003). United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the Covenant), adopted 20 January 2003, UNDoc E/C.12/2002/11.

  • Chávarro, J. M. (2015). The human right to water: A legal comparative perspective at the international, regional and domestic level. Antwerp: Intersentia.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chile. (2016). Application Instituting Proceedings, filed in the Registry of the International Court of Justice on 6 June 2016, Dispute over the Status and Use of The Waters of The Silala (Chile v. Bolivia).

  • Coomans, F. (2011). The extraterritorial scope of the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights in the work of the United Nations Committee on Economic, social and cultural rights. Human Rights Law Review, 11(1), 1–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CRC. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in New York, on 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990. Bolivia is a party since 26 June 1990; Chile since 13 August 1990.

  • CRPD. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in New York, on 13 December 2006, entry into force 3 May 2008. Bolivia is a party since 16 November 2009; Chile since 29 July 2008.

  • de Albuquerque, C. (2014). Realising the human rights to water and sanitation: A handbook by the un special rapporteur. Introduction, Portugal.

  • Greco, R. (2017). The Silala dispute: Between international water law and the human right to water. Questions of International Law, 39, 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, L. (2016). Statement by the special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 25 October 2016.

  • HRC. (2010). United Nations Human Rights Council, Human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation, resolution adopted 30 September 2010, UNDoc A/HRC/RES/15/9. The resolution was adopted without a vote. At the time of adoption, Chile was member of the Council, Bolivia was not.

  • ICCPR. (1966). International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in New York, on 16 December 1966, entry into force 23 March 1976. Bolivia is a party since 12 August 1982; Chile since 10 February 1972.

  • ICESCR. (1966). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted in New York, on 16 December 1966, entry into force 3 January 1976. Bolivia is a party since 12 August 1982; Chile since 10 February 1972.

  • ICJ. (1996). International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, 8 July 1996.

  • ICJ. (1997). International Court of Justice, Case concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary v. Slovakia), Judgment of 25 September 1997.

  • ICJ. (2010). International Court of Justice, Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay), Judgment of 20 April 2010.

  • ILA. (2002). International Law Association, New Delhi Declaration of Principles of International Law Relating to Sustainable Development, Resolution 2002/3, adopted 6 April 2002.

  • ILA. (2004). International Law Association, Berlin Rules on Water Resources, adopted with commentaries, on 21 August 2004.

  • ILC. (1997). International Law Commission, Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses: Report of the Sixth Committee convening as the Working Group of the Whole, UN Doc. A/51/869 of 11 April 1997.

  • Kirschner, A. J. (2011). The human right to water and sanitation. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, 15, 445–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murthy, S. L. (2013). The human right(s) to water and sanitation: History, meaning, and the controversy over-privatization. Berkeley Journal of International Law, 31(1), 89–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi, C. R. (2017). The transboundary dispute over the waters of the Silala/Siloli: Legal vandalism and Goffmanian Metaphor. Stanford Journal of International Law, 53(1), 55–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNECE. (1992). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, concluded in Helsinki on 17 March 1992, entry into force 6 October 1996.

  • UNGA. (1948). United Nations General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, resolution adopted 10 December 1948, UN Doc A/RES/217(III).

  • UNGA. (2010a). United Nations General Assembly, Sixty-fourth session, 108th plenary meeting, Wednesday 28 July 2010, New York, A/64/PV.108.

  • UNGA. (2010b). United Nations General Assembly, The human right to water and sanitation, resolution adopted 28 July 2010, UNDoc A/RES/64/292.

  • WCC. (1997). Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, adopted in New York, on 21 May 1997, entry into force 17 August 2014. Bolivia and Chile are not party.

  • Winkler, I. T. (2014). The human right to water: Significance, legal status and implications for water allocation (p. 2014). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies (CIBOS) of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China

    Otto Spijkers

Authors
  1. Otto Spijkers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Otto Spijkers.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Spijkers, O. The no significant harm principle and the human right to water. Int Environ Agreements 20, 699–712 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-020-09506-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-020-09506-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation