Almost in keeping with the contemplative Advent season, “Human Rights Day” will be celebrated on December 10, 2017. Looking back over the past few months of 2017, there are countless sad examples of how human rights are disregarded on a daily basis around the world. In this context, the question also arises as to whether the right to an adequate supply of clean water can be realized as a fundamental right worldwide.
Human rights of the United Nations
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drawn up back in 1947 under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Every year on December 10, the United Nations (UN) commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of 1948. For the first time, the then 56 member states of the UN agreed on a jointly adopted catalog of fundamental rights. They were all based on the principles of justice, equality and the rule of law. This value system was an enormous achievement after the experiences of the Second World War. All people should have these basic rights, regardless of their origin, social status, gender, age, religion or political beliefs.
30 articles for more justice
The United Nations General Assembly formulated a total of 30 articles covering civil, social, economic and political rights. To this day, the most important of these include the right to life, to health and to property, as well as the equality of all citizens before the law. However, it was not possible to create a legally binding agreement for all 56 nations. To do this, each of the individual UN member states first had to transpose the articles into their own national law. In the Federal Republic of Germany, these human rights standards were enshrined in the Basic Law back in 1949. It was not until the 1960s that a UN Civil Pact and a UN Social Pact were added, which were the first binding international human rights agreements to be concluded at global level. While the Civil Pact regulates civil and political rights, the Social Pact covers social, economic and cultural rights. Most of them are based on the original declaration from 1948. Further contracts were added in the following decades.
Water as a fundamental right in the constitution
In almost all regions of Germany, clean water that gushes out of the tap in unlimited quantities is a matter of course. It would be easy to include the provision of clean water among the human rights in the German Basic Law. However, other European countries have not yet enshrined the right to water in their constitutions either. In 2016, Slovenia became the first country in Europe to implement a corresponding right to clean water. The focus was on protecting the country’s water resources and preventing the privatization of water. Although the United Nations recognized access to clean drinking water as a fundamental human right back in 2010, this is not a binding law for individual nations. It is only a joint declaration of intent. So far, only 16 countries worldwide have included the right to clean water in their national constitutions. Uruguay was the pioneer in 2004. In Germany, there was a motion in the Bundestag four years ago to also recognize water as a public good and thus protect it from privatization. However, more than half of the members of the Bundestag voted against it.
Advantages of the fundamental right to water: In the long term, the country’s water resources can be protected. If water is and remains a public good, private investors or large international corporations cannot profit from the need for water. Clean water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene would probably be available to everyone at affordable prices for generations to come.
