According to international observers, recently Canada emerged as the pivotal nation behind blocking the United Nations Human Rights Council from recognizing water as a human right.
An intense three week session of the Geneva-based body wrapped up on Friday without passing the resolution that would enshrine the importance of water in the world, where approximately 2 billion people live in water-stressed regions. Furthermore, the resolution also integrated a world-wide watchdog to monitor the actions of individual countries.
According to the
Toronto Star article, 46 members voted for the acceptance of the consensus resolution while Canadian representative Sarah Geh told the council that Canada does not view this resolution "as creating a human right to water under international human rights law."
In his final speech, a rather distressed German representative Reinhard Schweppe stressed the importance of having fresh water as well as basic sanitation. He stated that it is only human dignity to have both of these and that a child dies every 20 seconds from water-borne diseases.
To make things a bit interesting, according to Ashfaq Khalfan, co-ordinator of the U.K.-headquartered Right to Water Program, if Canada accepted the resolution to make water a right, it would have passed.
Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, supported this by stating that it was ultimately Canada's fault for "derailing" the process. Furthermore, she noted that the United States backed up Canada on this - however, the excited states of America does not have a seat in the UN rights council.
"Canada failed to take up the challenge. Canadians would find it shocking to realize our role in this," said Barlow, a veteran of battles about water.
Furthermore, the resolution was also against privatization in some countries such as Bolivia. It clearly stated that water should be considered a right, not a commodity.
Frances Scarpaleggia (Lac-St.-Louis), the Quebec MP, said that Canada's sovereignty over its water was not developed in the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, which raised problems for Ottawa internationally. In trade terms this would mean that water is a commodity or service.
"I believe – and I guess the government sees it the same way —– if we start signing on to recognizing water as an international human right ... it might make it easy for private companies, or for those south of the border, who would like to export Canada's water in bulk to embarrass us on the public square," Scarpaleggia said. "These people could argue, 'Well, you've agreed water is a human right, we here down in Atlanta have no water, there's a drought,' or in California or whatever. You have a moral obligation to be consistent with your word and let us take some water down here, by one means or another."
However, a consensus was worked our over three weeks and at least now it will examine obligations that are related to access to safe water and sanitation. Kahlfan and Barlow stressed that their organizations have not and will not give up.
Yesterday, foreign affairs spokesperson Shaun Tinkler said the compromise resolution "accurately reflects that a right to water is not explicitly recognized as a fundamental human right under international human rights law."
He praised the consensus agreement for setting up an independent expert. He also stated that Canada had "worked constructively with other delegations to develop a negotiated text which accurately reflects the status of this issue."
