A Human Right to Access Water? A Critique of General Comment No. 15

At the conclusion of its 29th session in 2002, the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereinafter the Committee) identified a human right to access water uniquely straddling two provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Covenant). ¹ General Comment No. 15 novelly defined a universal entitlement to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use. ² This article critiques that instrument for the phraseology employed, the substantive omissions and the reasoning of the Committee. The article also evaluates the broader implications of a human right to access water with is a liberalised market context. Paragraph 1 questions the legal basis identified by the Commillee and considers the existence of a right to access water under contemporary international law. Paragraph 2 assesses the policy justifications which prompted a human rights orientation to the global challenges confronting water resources including the treatment of water services under international economic law. Most notable among the several omissions from General Comment No. 15 is the increasingly prominent role and responsibilities of the private sector as outlined in paragraph 3. Paragraph 4 sceptically examines the prospects for implementing a human rights approach to water resources in light of applicable economic and environmental principles. Finally, it is argued that unreflective resort to the General Comment template for addressing individual interests will render such instruments outdated or unhelpful as normative guides and several solutions are offered in paragraph 5.