Vol. 22 No. 2 (2015)
Estudios

Protection over the access to drinking water within the international law framework

Silvia Bertazzo
Universidad de Los Andes.
Bio

Published 2016-01-17

Keywords

  • Right to water,
  • Human Rights,
  • International Law,
  • Law of international watercourses

How to Cite

Bertazzo, S. (2016). Protection over the access to drinking water within the international law framework. Revista De Derecho (Coquimbo. En línea), 22(2), 55-92. https://revistaderecho.ucn.cl/index.php/revista-derecho/article/view/1809

Abstract

In response to the present problems of water pollution and stress (which affect human health and life conditions), it is relevant to analyze how public international law tackles the issue of the access to drinking water in order to identify the legal basis for the protection of water demands for human consumption. In particular, the article deals with the main international treaties on human rights and water resources management, the non-binding documents ("soft law") relating to the access to drinking water, and the judicial decisions, especially the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence for establishing the existence, in public international law, of a set of rules which protect the satisfaction of human water needs and in some cases recognize the access to drinking water as a human right as well.

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