Human R ght to Water

Benjamin Mason Meier, JD, LLM, PhDAssistant Professor of Global Health PolicyUniversity of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

American Public Health Association Annual MeetingNovember 9, 2009

International Law

Public Health

Human Rights

Health & Human Rights

THEORY Evolution Application

Human Rights-Based Approach Human Right = Valid claim & Corresponding duty("X has a right against Y in relation to Z“)

Rights holder

Duty bearer

Demand of Rights

Programs to Realize

Rights

THEORY Evolution Application

E.g.: “A child has a valid claim to a right to water, which is realized through the duties of the national government to provide water systems.”

Goals – (1) Define duty-bearers and rights-holders, (2) Impose legal obligations on duty-bearers, (3) Inform rights-holders of their rights and how these rights can be claimed and enforced

Health & Human Rights

• Human Rights Matter • Human Rights Evolve• Evolution of Rights in

International Law• Health Promotion and

Disease Prevention through the Right to Water

Health & Human Rights

International Law

Human Rights

Public Health

• The Health & Human Rights Movement

THEORY Evolution Application

The Human Right to Water

1945 1965 1985 2005

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Theory EVOLUTION Application

Earth Summit

Millennium Development Goals

MDGs for Health

General Comment 15

Mar del Plata Conference

Convention on the Rights of the Child

General Comment No.15

The adequacy of water, although variable, is determined in all circumstances by:1. Availability2. Quality

3. Accessibility– Physical accessibility – Economic accessibility – Non-discrimination– Information

accessibility

provides guidelines for States Parties on the interpretation of the rights to waterStates’ Obligations:

(1) respect(2) protect(3) fulfil

a. facilitationb. promotionc. provision

States at the very least are obligated to provide minimum essential levels of the right to water

Theory EVOLUTION Application

Application of the Right to Water• Jocelyn E. Getgen, JD, MPH (Cornell Law School)

– Water Wars to Water Rights: the Evolution of the Right to Water as a Public Health IssueLindsay F. Wiley, JD, MPH (Georgetown Law Center)

– Climate Change and the Right to Water• Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharya, JD, MPH, LLM & Nadia Ali, BA

(Southern Illinois University School of Medicine)– The Right to Water, Co-Morbidities, and Social Determinants of

Health• Nina Miller, PhD (Water for People)

– Human Rights and Development Tools: Perspectives From the Field

Theory Evolution APPLICATION