International agreements

3.4 International agreements

Not only do basin organisations have to comply with national legislation (see Section 3.2 Law and policy), but they also have to comply with international or regional legal agreements. This may apply even for basins that do not span national boundaries, for example with respect to human rights legislation or international standards and norms in health or finance. Basin organisations thus need access to expertise on international law to ensure they understand and comply with international or regional legal agreements where they exist.

There are many agreements on water that involve more than one country. But most are very limited in scope or only include a few of the riparian countries in the basin covered by the agreement. Nevertheless, it is sometimes possible to make considerable progress on water sharing arrangements and good practices without formal legal agreements. Taking a legal approach is only possible once political progress has paved the way.

Perhaps the best known international legal framework for water is the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. This Convention established a framework for co-operation between the 56 member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to prevent and control pollution of transboundary watercourses. The Convention is built on three principles:

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1. the precautionary principle: action to avoid the release of hazardous substances must not be postponed, despite the lack of a proven causal link between the substances and the transboundary impact;

2. the polluter pays principle: the costs of pollution prevention, control and reduction measures must be borne by the polluter; and

3. water resources must be managed so that the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The Convention requires that states work towards ensuring that transboundary waters: „ are managed in a rational, environment-friendly manner;

„ are used in a reasonable and equitable way; and „ ensure conservation and restoration of ecosystems.

The Convention encourages co-operation among the riparian countries through harmonised policies, programmes and strategies to protect transboundary waters. It focuses on water quality. But, although water quality is a key issue for the member states of the UN Economic Commission for Europe it may not be the main priority for developing countries.

Another important international legal framework for water is the UN Convention on the Non- Navigational Uses of International Watercourses which was adopted in 1997. It is the only global treaty universally applicable to international freshwaters. The Convention needs to be ratified or approved by thirty-five states and to date this has not happened. Despite this, the principles of the Convention have been widely applied in developing regional and river basin agreements on water and play an important role in developing relationships between riparian states.

Before such conventions can be negotiated, there needs to be progress on other trans- national agreements, as well as good political and administrative relationships. In many parts of the world, regional political or economic organisations, for example the regional UN Commissions and bodies such as the Association of South East Asian Nations, Southern African Development Community, Economic Community of West African States, the Amazon Co-operation Treaty Organisation (OTCA) and Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur or Southern Common Market), are the best placed to put in place an appropriate political framework so that regional protocols on water can be agreed.

The European Union (EU) has enacted numerous directives relating to water and the environment that apply to all 27 EU member states. The best known is perhaps the Water Framework Directive (WFD) although others are equally important. The EU WFD focuses on the river basin and requires countries to prepare plans for all basins that set out the objectives for the basin and the timescale for achieving the objectives. EU directives are unique to the particular political context in Europe. However, they provide lessons that are useful when preparing agreements in other regions.

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