Canada, Last Holdout, Drops Opposition to Water as Human Right
UNITED NATIONS - Canada, in a dramatic political turnaround,
has signaled its willingness to recognise water and sanitation as a
basic human right.
Some 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related causes. (Credit:Eva Bartlett/IPS) As negotiations continue
over the Rio+20 plan of action on sustainable development to be adopted
in Brazil next month, Canada became one of the last Western nations to
drop its opposition to a reference to water as a human right in the
document titled "The Future We Want."
Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, one
of Canada's largest social justice advocacy organisations, said it took
"unprecedented pressure" to get the government in Ottawa to change its
position.
"The shift is a good thing, but words are not enough. We need
actions, and the government's actions directly contradict respect for
the human right to water," said Barlowe, a former U.N. senior advisor on
water to the president of the General Assembly.
Asked what next, she told IPS: "That's a very good question." She
said the government is supposed to prepare a report on its plan of
action and submit it to the United Nations.
"You can be sure we will be sitting on them," she added.
When the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in July 2010
recognising water and sanitation as a basic human right, 122 countries
voted for it, with 41 abstentions, but with no negative votes.
The United States, along with Canada, abstained - and so did some of
the European, as well as industrialised countries, including Britain,
Australia, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Japan, Israel, South Korea,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Ireland.
But several developing nations, mostly from Africa, also abstained on the vote, siding with rich industrial countries. These included: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
At the initial Rio+20 negotiations last year, several human rights and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned that the human right to water and sanitation was under threat.
Anil Naidoo, of the Canada-based Blue Planet Project, said that as
recently as last month, Canada was isolated in the Rio+20 negotiations
as the only country to publicly claim there is no legal basis for the right and call for its deletion.
"This position was untenable, however, almost two years after the
General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the right, followed by
three subsequent confirming Human Rights Council resolutions', he added.
The U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as
Rio+20, will be a summit meeting of world leaders, scheduled to take
place in Brazil Jun. 20-22.
A Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), comprising all 193 members states,
is currently conducting another round of weeklong negotiations,
beginning last Tuesday, aimed at finalising the plan of action,
informally called the zero draft.
Naidoo said the first indication that states would try to undermine
the human right to water and sanitation was when the UK, working inside
the European Union (EU), proposed deleting paragraph 67 of the zero
draft, which explicitly recognised the human right to water and
sanitation.
After pressure from several international NGOs,
and a rare explicit sanction from the Special Rapporteur on Water
Catarina de Albuquerque, the EU backed down and other governments pushed
back against the UK, notably Spain, said Naidoo.
But still, Canada, the other main longstanding opponent of the human
right to water and sanitation, continued to call for deletion of
paragraph 67 and in the next round was joined by the United States and
Israel.
"Working with allies inside the negotiations, we increased the
pressure and with staff from the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, were able to get the High Commissioner to call for human
rights to be protected in the Rio negotiations." he added.
Naidoo said "this has been a long struggle for those of us in Canada."
"We are aware that recognition is only the first step towards our real goals of implementation and realisation," he added.
"We also know those governments and corporations who are against the
human right will continue to try ever means to limit the scope and
impact of this victory; still, (but) we are making progress," he said.
© 2012 IPS North America
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