Water Security and Human Rights

Abstract

There is a growing movement in both international human rights law and within domestic national constitutions to recognize water as a human right. In this movement, the human right to water is almost exclusively formulated as a positive right—an obligation on the government to provide a minimum quantity and quality of affordable water. However, this formulation can be interpreted and implemented in ways that frustrate goals of water sustainability, because water may be underpriced as a human right. This chapter describes the history and evolution of the human right to water and proposes reforms to encourage its sustainable implementation.