The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, also known as the Dublin Principles, was a meeting of experts on water related problems that took place on 31 January 1992 at the International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE), Dublin, Ireland, organised on 26–31 January 1992. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development recognises the increasing scarcity of water as a result of the different conflicting uses and overuses of water.

The Dublin Principles

The declaration sets out recommendations for action at local, national and international levels to reduce the scarcity, through the following four guiding principles: #

Fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment # Water development and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels #

Women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water #Water has an

economic value In economics, economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a goods, good or service (economics), service to an Agent (economics), economic agent, and value for money represents an assessment of whether financial or other resources are ...

in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an

economic good In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs' ...

Water as a human right or economic good?

The emphasis of the Dublin Statement on ''the economic value'' of water rather than water as ''a universal right'' is highly contested by

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s and human rights activists (although the full text of principle 4 does state ''it is vital to recognize first the basic right of all human beings to have access to clean water and

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

at an affordable price'') In November 2002, however, the UN

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is a United Nations treaty body entrusted with overseeing the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It is composed of 18 expe ...

adopted ''General Comment No. 15'', which was formulated by experts as a comment on articles 11 and 12 of the

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (GA) on 16 December 1966 through GA. Resolution 2200A (XXI), and came into force on 3 January 197 ...

. In this comment, water is recognised not only as a limited natural resource and a public good but also as a

human right Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...

. This step - adopting General Comment No. 15 - was seen as a decisive step towards the recognition of water as universal right. On 30 September 2010, the 15th Session of the UN Human Rights Council passed Resolution A/HRC/15/L.14, reaffirming an earlier General Assembly resolution (64/292 of 28 July 2010) which ''recognized the right to safe and clean

drinking water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...

and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights''. Resolution A/HRC/15/L.14 clarifies that ''the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is derived from the

right to an adequate standard of living The right to an adequate standard of living is listed as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was accepted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948.United Nations''Universal Declaration of Human Rights ...

and inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

, as well as the right to life and

human dignity Dignity is a human's contentment attained by satisfying physiological needs and a need in development. The content of contemporary dignity is derived in the new natural law theory as a distinct human good. As an extension of the Age of Enlighten ...

''.

References

{{reflist United Nations documents 1992 in international relations Human rights

The Dublin Principles

Water as a human right or economic good?

See also

References