A window of opportunity for the Mekong Basin: The UN Watercourses Convention as a basis for cooperation A legal analysis of how the UN Watercourses Convention complements the Mekong Agreement
IUCN Asia Regional Office, 2016
This IUCN paper, published under the BRIDGE programme, “A window of opportunity for the Mekong Basin: The UN Watercourses Convention as a basis for cooperation. A legal analysis of how the UN Watercourses Convention complements the Mekong Agreement’ provides a comparative analysis of the key substantive and procedural principles and obligations provided for in the two treaties.
Revisiting the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty
Hamid Sarfraz, Water International, 2013
This article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in light of the UN Watercourses Convention. The IWT is, to a large extent, still relevant but must incorporate contemporary environmental standards and the social realities that are impacting water resources. Proposals for improving the IWT include the incorporation of provisions related to joint research initiatives, optimal use of available resources through mutually negotiated trade-offs, a joint climate change adaptation strategy, consideration of environmental flow needs, and joint water development and energy generation.
Managing transboundary rivers in Latin America - could a global convention help?
Alejandro Iza, Juan Carlos Sanchez and Matt Hulse, IUCN Environmental Law Centre, 2014
On the 17 August 2014, with the entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention, the international community will be faced with a unique situation: the presence of two global, legally binding instruments concerning the management of transboundary watercourses. The UN Watercourses Convention will stand alongside the UNECE Water Convention, which has recently become open to global membership. While it is unusual to have two such instruments regulating the same issue, it cannot necessarily be said that this is an unfavourable situation; if coordinated effectively, these conventions could make a significant contribution to addressing transboundary water challenges around the world. However, for countries seeking to ratify and implement one, or both, of these conventions, there are a number of questions to consider if the international community hopes to successfully navigate these unfamiliar legal waters. In seeking to answer the question of why a nation might ratify these conventions, this article will trace the development of these conventions, describe the law of transboundary water as it stands, and discuss the implications of the implementation of these conventions. As these are unchartered waters, we shall pose some further considerations that must be given some thought as we strive to develop the field of transboundary water law. This article will use transboundary water governance in Latin America as the context to ground this discussion.
Adaptive water governance: Lessons learned from implementing an ecosystem-approach in Mesoamerica
Alejandro Iza, Alexandra Müller, and Valentina Nozza, 2015
IUCN, in the framework of its water law and governance project portfolio, launched several pilot projects in Central America testing the principles of adaptive water governance on the ground by applying the ecosystem based approach. This paper explains the challenges encountered and presents the lessons learned from these projects. It shows that there is evidence that adaptive management and multi-level governance are a good way to enhance both good water governance and adaptive capacity on a local level as well as on a transnational one. It was further encountered that this forms the basis towards more cooperation among states and could also be a good starting point for broader regional cooperation and trust building.
Discussion Paper Global UN Water Conventions: Options For Coordinated Implementation
Remy Kinna, Alistair Rieu-Clarke and Flavia Rocha Loures
This discussion paper considers the relationship between the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC) and the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE Water Convention), and the options for ensuring their coordinated implementation in the future. Such a discussion is important given the prospects of both conventions existing as global treaties in force on the same subject matter of transboundary water cooperation.
