Law
A. Khosravi
Abstract
Water plays a vital role in human life, affecting not only the functioning of the body but also other human rights. For this reason, in recent decades, international bodies, including the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by approving Comment No. 15, have identified the access to water ...
Read More
Water plays a vital role in human life, affecting not only the functioning of the body but also other human rights. For this reason, in recent decades, international bodies, including the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by approving Comment No. 15, have identified the access to water as a human right. But it is not easy to enjoy this right because of limited water resources, its non-availability, contaminated surface waters and the like, and it always creates problems for people, their families and even the community. Governments as the primary bound of this right have also sought to privatize water, because of the expense involved in collecting, storing and supplying water. But the question that arises is that, given that privatization leads to commercialization and economization of water, can it meet the characteristics and requirements of the right to water? Although there is no single global or regional model for this, the paper attempts to answer this question first by examining the nature and characteristics and requirements of the right to water from the perspective of international documents, especially the interpretative theory, and then characteristics and nature of privatization in this regard.
Interdisciplinary
N. Rahmannasab Amiri; A. Pourezzat
Abstract
The crisis in global natural water will be an issue of concern in this century for several reasons. Some of them are population growth, climate changes and specifically unsustainable use of water resources that makes provision of safe drinking water one of the most important global concerns. As one of ...
Read More
The crisis in global natural water will be an issue of concern in this century for several reasons. Some of them are population growth, climate changes and specifically unsustainable use of water resources that makes provision of safe drinking water one of the most important global concerns. As one of the human rights, the right to water will be a major concern. Undoubtedly, states have an international duty to ensure individual’s access to safe drinking water. But solving water crisis and finding further methods to use the water resources more sustainably shall not be attainable without the participation of the private sector. The engagement of transnational enterprises with high financial, technical and human resources from the private sector in water provision and management with respect to the right to water, reveals the importance of reviewing the role and responsibility of private sector, specifically transnational corporations in implementation of right to water. The present article, choosing interdisciplinary approach, attempts to review the legal and ethical justifications of private enterprises’ responsibility for human right to water as well as determine the nature and scope of such responsibility as a financial entity, not as public interest provider.
