Document Type : Original Independent Original Article
Highlights
Introduction
Access to clean water and adequate sanitation is essential to the realization of the third generation of human rights. In countries without a water and sanitation service, people lack access to the adequate amount of water. They may, however, gain access to water through unhygienic ways thus jeopardizing other rights such as those to food, housing, health, and education. Entitlement to the right to water is different and varies according to various factors. States should come up with effective solutions to guaranteeing the water right as a third-generation human right and to ensure its general sustainability. States commitment to providing access to the right to water and sanitation is indispensable for schools, healthcare centers, prisons, workplaces, and public places because it has a direct relationship with the right to life, and states bear different responsibilities in various institutional areas and may need to introduce new regulations to their domestic body of laws and regulations. On the other hand, there mustn’t be a restriction on access to water and sanitation because states are obliged to supply clean water to their citizens. From the perspective of the third-generation human rights, access to affordable water and sanitation services is the starting point for countries to make decisions regarding the financing and general policy of water supply and sanitation services; this view differs from the pure economic view. This paper addresses, in three parts, the right to water in the judicial precedents (aggregate of court rulings) of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Part 1 is about the right to water in the International Environmental Law. Part 2 delves into major human rights documents on the right to water. And Part 3 analyzes the ECHR precedents/rulings about the right to water and relevant cases. Considering the ECHR precedents about the right to water, this paper seeks to take a special look at the cases being heard in the ECHR and asserts the right to water on the basis of human rights documents. It also aims to eliminate the ambiguities surrounding the right to water as a cross-generational subject of human rights through the aggregate of the ECHR judicial precedents/rulings. Removing the ambiguities, this paper sheds a light on every aspect of the right to water.
Methods
This paper adopted a descriptive-analytical method to answer its main question: What is the judicial precedent of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about the right to water? The paper scrutinized international human rights documents, third-generation human rights documents, and several important cases being heard in the ECHR regarding the right to water.
Findings
An extensive and dynamic interpretation of Articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and human rights resolutions clearly shows that they explicitly recognize the human right to water. All states are obliged to ensure the realization of this right in a non-discriminatory manner. Examining the steps taken by different states in providing access to clean water, the European Council on Environmental law concluded that every individual is entitled to the right to water. Access to an adequate amount of clean water is indispensable for human life. Although there is no separate clause in human rights documents on this right, it can be deduced against the backdrop of these documents. Examining the cases for which the ECHR has passed a judgement as well as other human rights conventions such as Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and human rights resolutions, the judgements are mostly in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant, i.e. states. Article 35 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights recognizes every individual’s right to preventive healthcare and states that individuals are entitled to healthcare services under the conditions established by national laws and practices in their countries. Article 4 of the European Social Charter addresses the right to health; to protect this right, states are obliged to directly or in association with public and private organizations provide the conditions for proper education in the areas of health and personal responsibility.
Results
There need to be established necessary conditions for everybody to gain the right to water. However,
Some individuals require special attention. For instance, there are a number of homeless people in small rural communities who cannot pay the water fees. Therefore, typical public measures regarding the right to water don’t prove helpful in this case. The European Council examined the performance of its member states and concluded that every person is entitled to the water right, and in a resolution passed in April 2000, this Council specified the content of this right: the right to water cannot be separated from other recognized human rights. The Council called on the states to ensure this right for all without any discrimination. However, we need a global approach to safeguard this resource: passing a new international treaty regarding the protection of the global environment; establishing an international water committee under the supervision of the UN that deals with matters such as preserving, managing, and using international waters, and attends to concerns raised about the environment; and finally introducing a humanitarian international law that addresses the protection of the environment, which is threatened increasingly by the rising destructive power of arms/weapons. This law should be able to legally limit the countries manufacturing destructive weapons (weapons of mass destruction). Should these steps fail to yield the desired results, the global community would be doomed to a huge water war in the future.
Subjects
