ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a new basis for assessing options and reaching decisions on water and energy resources development. It links a review of past experience contained in the Global Review chapters with the WCD's framework. There is a globally accepted framework for setting universal goals, norms and standards. The foundations of the framework are the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reference to the framework of human rights adopted by the international community in 1948 advances the process of planning and decision-making in important ways. The application of a rights based approach recognises the indivisibility of civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights. Public and private developers of large dam projects have long understood that the sector involves managing risks of a technical, financial and even political nature. The chapter summarises both the findings of the WCD Global Review and the implications of the normative framework.
