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CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RIGHT TO WATER, FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF HUMAN SECURITY1
Mădălina Virginia ANTONESCU,PhD
 comunicare științifică (rom., engl.), publicata cu titlul Considerații privind dreptul la apă, din
perspectiva securității umane,conferințaștiințificăinternațională”Complexitateași dinamismul
mediului de securitate”, organizată de Centrul de Studii Strategice de Apărare și Securitate,
UNAP, 11-12 iunie 2015, București, http://www.strategii21.ro/index.php/ro/sectiunile-
conferintei-3
Abstract: In the present paper, we attempt to briefly present the recent legal connections
determined at the level of doctrine and international law, in terms of concepts such as “human
security”, “durable development”, “human development” and human rights. Considered to be a
fundamental human right, the right to water extends its legal content, with the content extension
of the “human security” concept and with the new developments in the international law, in
terms of human rights. Water is considered either a cultural item, or an economic item; however,
it represents a vital component of the terrestrial ecosystem, conditioning the very human
existence and the human civilization, overall, and thus being a major component of the
“extended human security” concept, which demands more attention in the 21st century.
Key-words: right to water, human rights, drinking water, sanitation, right to an adequate life
standard, human dignity, right to life, human security
Introduction
The right to water, considered to be part of the category of economic, social and cultural
human rights, but also connected to the civil and political rights (through the right to life, human
freedom and dignity), is inherently connected to other fundamental human rights, such as: the
right to health, human equality (especially the principle of gender-based non-discrimination), the
1 The present article represents only the personal opinion of the authorand it does not involve in any form any other
natural person or legal entity.

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right to education, the right to life, as well as the right to a healthy and clean environment, or to
the human being’s condition of freedom itself. Other major connections entailing this right can
also be distinguished also regarding the following: the right to an adequate life standard, the right
to housing, the right to food. As noted in the Outcome of the International Experts’ Meeting on the
Right to Water (Paris, July 7th
– 8th
2009)2
, access to water (sanitation, included3
) is qualified as a “sine
qua non condition”, in order to observe the above-mentioned human rights, in the context in which,
according to the reports issued by the UN bodies, almost 900 million people lack access to safe
(unpolluted) drinking water and 2.5 billion people, i.e. almost 40% of the global population, do not have
access to improved sanitation4
.
1. Legal Enshrinement, at International and Regional Level, of the Right to Water
The legal basis at international level, enshrining the right to water, directly or indirectly,
as a human right, is formed of a series of international documents, including the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights/1945, which indirectly refers to the right to water, by enshrining
other rights, such as “the individual right to an adequate standard for health, welfare, including
food and shelter”. Therefore, this right cannot exercise its content, in the absence of the
individual right to water and of the individual’s free access to a water source. In addition, the
International Pact on Civil and Political Rights/1966 refers to the implicit individual right to
water, since it expressly stipulates certain rights which cannot be exercised in their content, in
the absence of the right to water, but it also stipulates that “no one can be dispossessed of or
deprived of one’s means of subsistence” and that “each human being has the inherent right to
life”. In the same manner, the International Pact on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights/1966
enshrines rights that cannot be exercised without an implicit knowledge of the individual right to
water. To this end, the General Comment no. 15 of the Committee on the Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights considers that the right to an adequate life standard, as well as the benefit of the
highest reachable standard of mental and physical health, enshrined in this Pact, entail the right
to water. In addition, the UN Convention on the Right of Non-navigational Uses of the
International Water Courses/1997 stipulates that “special attention shall be paid to the
requirements concerning vital human needs” (implicit enshrinement of the human right to water
and hygienic living conditions).
There are, however, explicit enshrinements of the right to water, such as the specification
in the Covenant on Eliminating all the Forms of Discrimination against Women, stipulating the
right of the women in the rural environment to decent living conditions, which includes the right
2 Outcome of the International Experts’s Meeting on the Right to Water, Paris, 7 and 8 July 2009.
www.unescdoc.unesco.org, accessed on April 6th 2015.
3 The term coined in the official terminology is “access to water and sanitation”
4 UNESCO, WHO, Progress in Drinking-water and Sanitation: special focus on sanitation, WHO/UNICEF Joint
Monitoring Programme for Water/Supply and Sanitation (JMP), 2008.

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to water. The International Covenant on the Child’s Rights explicitly refers to the right to water,
by enshrining the right of each child to the highest standard possible, to reach in terms of health,
also guaranteeing the right of every child to clean and adequate drinking water. The Geneva
Conventions/1949, in the field of humanitarian law, expressly stipulate obligations regarding the
states, in ensuring “an adequate living standard, for health and welfare, for the war prisoners,
including the drinking water and the water for personal use”. Additional Protocol I to these
Covenants bans the belligerent parties from attacking, destroying, render unusable “items
indispensable for the survival of the civilian population”, such as the irrigation systems and the
drinking water supplies.
In the field of international and regional documents expressly or implicitly enshrining the
right to water, we must also mention: the Abuja Declaration, adopted at the first Africa-South
America Summit/2006, (stipulating “the right of each of our citizens to have access to clean and
safe/unpolluted water and to sanitation”); the Delhi Declaration adopted at the Third South-Asian
Conference regarding sanitation), SACOSAN/2008 (acknowledging that “access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation represents a fundamental human right”); the UN.GA Resolution on the
right to development/2000 (acknowledging the right to clean water); Agenda 21/1992 (including
an objective of the states to make sure that “the adequate water resources include access to a
satisfactory quantity and quality of water”); the Action Program of the International Conference
on Population and Development/1994 (expressly acknowledging “the right to an adequate life
standard, including water and sanitation water”); International Dublin Conference on Water and
Environment/1992 (acknowledging that “access to clean water and to sanitation water, at a for an
acceptable price, is a fundamental right of all the human beings”5).
Other resolutions issued by UN organisms regarding the right to water and its
implementation at national level, by governments, as well as through international cooperation
instruments (including the independent UN experts) are the following: Council Resolution
regarding the Human Rights 7/22 dated March 28th 2008 (“Human Rights and the access to safe
drinking water and sanitation”); UN.GA Resolution 64/292 dated July 2010, representing the
first formal enshrinement of the right to water and sanitation, acknowledging at the same time
that “clean drinking water and personal use and sanitation water are essential for the exercise of
all the other human rights”. We must also mention the Council Resolution on Human Rights 15/9
dated September 2010, establishing the position of the right to water and sanitation, in the
international law.
The Council Resolution on Human Rights, under the aegis of UN.GA 18/1 dated
September 28th 2011 (« Human right to safe drinking water and sanitation ») determines in an
explicit manner the right to safe drinking water and sanitation; at the same time it is considered
that the right in question derives from the right to an adequate standard of living; the integrating
vision of the human rights is also considered (by acknowledging that the right to water is
5 Outcome, quoted op., p. 3.

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inextricably linked to the right to the highest possible standard of physical and mental health, the
right to life and the human dignity).
We must also mention the Rio Declaration/June 1992, adopted following the Rio Summit
and the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (particularly, chapter 18 of
Agenda 21, reminding about the Conference on Water, following which the Mar del Plata
Resolution was adopted, enshrining the right of all the people to have access to drinking water)6.
In addition, the UN.GA Resolution 54/175, dated December 1999 (with the title “The Right to
Development”), in article 12, makes an express legal connection between the right to
development and the right to food of the person, as well as the individual right to clean water,
acknowledging their nature of “fundamental human rights”; the application and promotion of
these rights “represents a moral obligation for the governments and for the international
community”.
The Johannesburg Summit/2002 regarding durable development finalized with a political
statement, enshrining the connection between the human dignity and the human access to
satisfying basic needs, such as: clean water, sanitation, energy, and care for health, food security
and protection of biodiversity. A Project of Orientations for the implementation of the right to
drinking water and sanitation (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/25) was elaborated in July 2005, used in the
report issued by the Special Rapporteur with the Economic and Social Council of the United
Nations and adopted by the Sub-Commission for the promotion and protection of human rights,
orientations designed to provide support and solutions for the governmental decision-makers,
international agencies and civil society regarding the implementation of the right to water and
sanitation7.
In another view, we could say that the right to water is part of the category of solidarity
rights¸ beside the right to a healthy and clean environment, the right to peace and the right to
development. In a narrow view, others might consider that the right to water does not fall into the
category of third generation human rights; instead, it could be regarded as an economic right or
even as a cultural right (considering the sense assigned to water, that of “cultural item”, by
UNESCO). In the Contribution to the Study of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights regarding the scope and content of the obligations related to the human rights concerning
fair access to safe drinking water and sanitation regarding the quality of water and access to
water, UNESCO considered that “water was always an important component of the UNESCO
scientific programs and it became the priority of the Natural Sciences Sector, at the 21st
UNESCO General Conference, in 2001”8.
UNESCO sees the states ensuring “non-discriminatory access to water and sanitation” as
a “precondition for the exercise of other human rights, such as the right to life, human dignity,
6 The Human Right to Water and Sanitation.Milestones,www.un.org, accessed on April 6th 2015.
7 www.ohchr.org/English/issues/water/focs/SUb_Com_Guisse_guidelines.pdf
8 Outcome, quoted op., p. 6.

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right to health, right to food, right to an adequate life standard and education”, an integrating
vision of the human rights, which was subsequently resumed in its Strategy on Human
Rights/20039.
2. Continuous Expansion of the Human Security Scope, from the Perspective of
New Challenges of the 21st Century (Underdevelopment, Chronic Poverty,
Infectious Diseases, Precarious Sanitation, Water Crisis)
The beginning of the 21st century saw a diversification in the global issues for which the
states, through international, regional, not only national cooperation, must ensure a solution in
due time, through a common vision, in the context in which not solving this global issues
(including free access to drinking water and sanitation, ensuring non-polluted, healthy and safe
water for consumption and certain adequate sanitation conditions, for the population) leads to a
serious impact, down to denial, of an entire set of fundamental human rights. According to a
report of UNPD from 2006, the lack or limiting of free access to water also results in
infringement upon the principle of non-discrimination between sexes, in certain areas of the
globe (since, according to the report, “Millions of women and young girls collect water for their
families every day – a practice that reinforces gender inequalities by preventing girls from
attending school”)10.
The experts’ reports on exercising this right, in practice, show that the dirty water and the
poor sanitation represent the second largest cause of child mortality, at world level, with a ratio
of 1/5 (while the HIV virus causes the death of one child, poor sanitation and water for
individual hygiene needs cause the death of five children). 10,000 people die each day (including
almost 5,000 children under 5 years old) because of diseases caused by unsafe water (dirty,
polluted) and poor sanitation, on account of absence of water or inadequate water, these reports
also read.
The World Health Organization shows in its reports that access to water and sanitation “is
not simply a question of water resources, technology and infrastructure, but also of setting
priorities, tackling poverty and inequality, addressing societal power imbalances, and, above all,
political will.”11
9 Outcome, idem, p. 6.
10 UNDP: Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, 2006,
quoted in Outcome of the International Experts” Meeting on the Right to Water, Paris, 7 and 8 July 2009,
www.unescdoc.unesco.org, accessed on April 6th 2015.
11 Outcome of the International Experts” Meeting on the Right to Water, Paris, 7 and 8 July 2009.
www.unescdoc.unesco.org, accessed on April 6th 2015.

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Human security represents one of the fields included in the “durable development”
phrase12, beside the environment security. Concerning the right to water, we consider that there
is an indissoluble connection between human security (through objectives that go beyond
ensuring resources of drinking water or sanitation for the population of a state) and environment
security (non-pollution of drinking water, ensuring the human right to a healthy and clean
environment), when the states ensure this right, at national, regional and international level.
The threats to human security, in the 21st century (underdevelopment, chronic poverty,
infectious diseases, precarious sanitation, a low living standard, cross-border water pollution,
reduction of drinking water reserves etc.) progressively cause an extension of the human security
content, as this concept has to be connected to the concept of durable development. In addition,
there is also another innovative concept proposed by the UNDP (United Nations Development
Program/1994), i.e. the concept of “human development” (in the Report on Human
Development), which generated a fundamental rethinking of the concept of security13. In
addition, the military doctrine also notes the extension of the concept of “human security”,
through other conceptual innovations (the “absence of needs” trend, the “freedom to live in
dignity” trend or the “freedom to live on one’s own” trend, the “free oneself from fear” trend)
introduced by the UNDP Report, in 1994, regarding the Human Development, as well as the
Report of the UN General Secretary, ”In Larger Freedom. Towards Development Security and
Freedom for All”/200514. We must particularly mention (for the major connection determined
between the human rights and the human society) the “absence of needs” trend, with the starting
point in the vision according to which hunger, diseases, natural disasters cause more victims than
terrorism, wars and genocide put together, the first aspects meeting the criteria for the category
of threats regarding the extended human security. Due to the innovative work of the UN
organisms (especially UNDP), it was possible to create a strong connection between the human
security and the human development, in three fundamental aspects (population, multidimensional
perspective of security, identification of poverty and inequity, as sources of individual
vulnerability)15.
The innovative concept proposed under the UN aegis (“freedom of the human being to
live in dignity”) and which led to the extension of the classic content of human security, entails
the benefit of certain civil and political rights, such as the right life, as well as economic, social
and cultural rights, such as the right to food, health, education, social protection, work, the right
to enjoy the benefits of technology, the scientific progress and its applications. The concept of
12 UNESCO’s contribution to OHCHR ‘s study on the scope and content of the human rights obligations related to
equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. April, 10, 2007, http://www2.ohchr.org
13 http://hdr.undp.org/eg/reports/global/hdr1994/chapters
14 www.un.org/largerfreedom/contents.htm
15 Sabina Alkire, A Conceptual Framework for Human Security, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security
and Ethnicity, Working Paper, 2, University of Oxford, London, 2003, citată în Alexandru Kiș, NATO și securitatea
umană, în coord. Mihai-Marcel Neag, Implicații economice, politice și militare asupra securității umane în etapa
post-conflict, Ed. Academiei Forțelor Terestre ”Nicolae Bălcescu”, Sibiu, 2011, p. 45.

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“human dignity”, as construed in the documents and programs elaborated under the UN aegis,
connected to the right to life, is also connected to major aspects for the creation of a state of
security for the individual (characterized by the absence of any form of privation, such as
hunger, ignorance, incapacity, disability and disease), as noted by the specialists16.
3. Content of the Human Right to Water
According to General Comment no. 15 of the Committee for Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, the right to water as a human right is defined as “the right of each individual to
sufficient, safe, acceptable physically accessible and affordable water”), for personal and
domestic use. As mentioned in this Comment, water must be of “safe quality and with acceptable
colour, taste and odour”, access to water must be “continuous, while the quantity of available
water must be adequate for the human dignity, for life and health”, sufficient for drinking,
cooking, personal hygiene and sanitation, while the satisfying (fulfilling) nature of the water
must not be construed in a restrictive manner, the Commentary reads. The text insists on
acknowledging water as a social and cultural item, not only as an economic item, referring to the
UNESCO’s vision of water (water as a cultural item), which influences and generates various
types of cultures and civilizations, through the human being-environment (water, in this case)
relation, such as: the feeling of affiliation, identity, cultural inheritance17.
Among the obligations of the states considered to have “immediate effect”, General
Commentary no. 15 also includes the obligation to ensure access to a minimum essential
quantity of water, at a reasonable distance from the dwellings, based on the principle of non-
discrimination and with special protection for the vulnerable and marginalized groups of people.
In addition, the Comment also imposes for the states the obligation to monitor progress made in
exercising the right to water of the people. For the developing states, these obligations, together
with others regarding the exercise of the right to water, entail the implementation of measures
through mechanisms of international cooperation, international assistance, especially in the
economic and technical field18.
According to Comment no. 15, universal access to sanitation is a fundamental right, “not
only for human dignity, but also for one of the main mechanisms of protecting the quality of
water resources.” Adopted in November 2002, this text sets certain criteria to ensure a full
benefit of the right to water (“the right to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and
affordable water”). According to art. 16 of General Comment no. 15, target-groups (the groups
which are “traditionally faced with difficulties in exercising their right to water, including
16 Alexandru Kiș, quoted op., p. 45.
17 Outcome, op.cit., p.4.
18 Outcome, quoted op., p. 4.

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women, children, minority groups, indigenous populations, refugees, asylum seekers, people
moved internally, migrants, workers, prisoners and inmates”) receive special attention from the
states, in ensuring the exercise of the right to water19.
Some conclusions
The right to water has numerous legal enshrinements, at international and regional level,
both express and implicit (being inferred from the enshrinement of certain rights necessarily
entailing it, such as the right to life, human dignity, the right to a satisfactory life standard,
human freedom, the right to health). Due to the diversification and increasing number of global
issues, at the beginning of the 21st century (globalization deepening the gap between the
developed countries in the industrialized North and the developing countries, especially the
countries in the South), a series of aspects (such as underdevelopment, hunger, lack of drinking
water or sanitation, lack, lessening or pollution of resources of drinking water, diseases related to
dirty water or lack of water or poor sanitation, caused by the lack of water or dirty water, chronic
poverty) convert into risk factors and threats to the individual, at a higher level, as compared to
other ages.
This issue determined the adjustment of national, regional and international efforts
(especially under the UN aegis) to extend the content of the concept of human security, towards
new directions, related to the human development, durable development, the “absence of needs”
trend, “freeing from fear” or the “freedom to live in dignity” trend. All these aspects have a
rather recent enshrinement, in relation to the human rights and the classic concept of security
and the idea of individual vulnerability, determining both the doctrine development on redefining
the human security, and new development directions of the international law, at the beginning of
the 21st century.
Bibliography:
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Bălcescu”, Sibiu, 2011
2. Outcome of the International Experts” Meeting on the Right to Water, Paris, 7 and 8 July 2009.
www.unescdoc.unesco.org, accesat la datat de 6 aprilie 2015.
19 According to World Health Organization, WHO, The Right to Water, 2003, www2.ohchr.org, accessed on April
6th 2015.

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