29 May - 1 June: Beijing International conference on women and desertification, Beijing, China

To mark the 2006 International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat, together with the governments of Algeria, China and Italy, will hold, from 29 May to 1 June, an international meeting on the role of women in combating desertification.

Experts in the fields of gender issues and sustainable development, representatives of civil society, as well as high-level country representatives and other eminent personalities will come together to share experiences and seek ways of empowering women as an effective means to counter land degradation and rural poverty.

Women's equal participation in the economic and political development of communities and countries has been recognized as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving international sustainable development commitments.

'Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance', said Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General.

In 1995, Beijing hosted the 4^th World Conference on Women. This resulted in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which urged governments to vigorously address women's rights and gender equality as core development concerns.

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Colloquium on the 150^th Anniversary of the Big Floods of 1856
31 may - 1 June 2006, Paris, France - Organizer: French Hydrotechnical Society (SHF), France; the Rhone-Alps, Centre and Midday-Pyrenees Regional Directorates for the Environment (DIREN), France; the French Association for the Prevention of Natural Disasters (AFPCN)

CIWEM Conference on Environmental Standards - Progress and Implementing Water Framework Directive (WFD)
8 June 2006, London, United Kingdom - Organizer: Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), United Kingdom

MEDA WATER International Conference on Sustainable Water Management, Rational Water Use, Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
8-10 June 2006, Marrakech, Morocco - Organizers: Faculty of Sciences of the University Chouaib Doukkali, Morocco; Agronomic and Veterinary Medicine Institute Hassan II, Morocco; National Technical University of Athens, Greece; Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC), Austria; University of Cyprus, Cyprus

International Conference on Decentralised Water and Wastewater Systems
10-11 July 2006, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia - Organizer: Murdoch University's Environmental Technology Centre, Australia

Integration4Water Workshops
2-4 June 2006, Warsaw, Poland - Organizer: Integration4Water Project

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• Because of its value and its importance in all aspects of life, water is a highly political issue.
• International water law concerns the rights and obligations that exist, primarily between States, for the management of transboundary water resources. Such legal rules and principles are dedicated to preventing conflict and promoting cooperation of shared water resources.
• The chief international legal document related to international water resources management is the 'United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses', adopted by the UN General Assembly in May 1997. This Convention applies to uses of international watercourses and of their waters for purposes other than navigation and to measures of protection, preservation and management related to the uses of those watercourses and their waters.
• International water law has evolved and crystallized through state practice and the codification and progressive development efforts undertaken by the United Nations and private institutions. The treaty practice in this area encompasses a broad range of instruments, from general agreements (which provide basic principles for water resource development) to specific 'contractual' type legal and technical arrangements (which set forth detailed operational schemes).
• In October 2000 the European Union Water Framework (WFD) was adopted and entered into force in December 2000. The purpose of the Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters (rivers and lakes), transitional waters (estuaries), coastal waters and groundwater. It will ensure all aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands meet 'good status' by 2015.
• While water users compete for the same resource and struggle for increasing control, they also need to cooperate if they want to make effective use of water and sustain the water's quantity and quality in the long run. This often occurs in 'pluralistic' legal contexts, where formal and informal normative systems sometimes clash. For example, in South Africa, water management moved from a pre-colonial collective activity to a publicly regulated resource under Roman-Dutch law. It was then transformed under Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence when it was captured as a private resource to the benefit of a small minority. A main objective of the current 1998 Water Act in South Africa is to redistribute water rights by granting water permits to sections of society that were previously discriminated against.

Information from 2^nd United Nations World Water Development Report, 'Water, a shared responsibility' and from the Policy and Law Section of the Water Page website.

Groundwater in International Law: Compilation of Treaties and other Legal Instruments [PDF Format - 140 KB]
By Stefano Burchi and Kerstin Mechlem, © FAO/UNESCO 2005.

In July 1998, the International Commission on Continental Erosion of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences organized a symposium with the theme 'Modelling Soil Erosion, Sediment Transport and Closely Related Hydrological Processes'.

Groundwater is of high social, economic, environmental and strategic importance. It represents about 97% of the freshwater resources available on earth, excluding the water locked in the polar ice. Aquifers, among them numerous transboundary ones, are coming under growing pressure from over-abstraction and pollution, which seriously threaten their sustainability. Up to now international law has paid much less attention to ground- than to surface water. Slowly however, a body of rules dealing with this vital resource is emerging that indicates a trend towards more comprehensive international regulation.

This publication brings together binding and non-binding international law instruments that, in varying degrees and from different angles, deal with groundwater. Its aim is to report developments in international law and to contribute to detecting law in-the-making in this important field.

Access the full publication [PDF Format - 140 KB]

From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential (PCCP) International Water Law Publications

The UNESCO's PCCP programme has published legal studies that present the role of law and institutions in the transition from potential conflict to co-operation potential, and the tools available for the protection of water resources and related facilities in times of armed conflicts. They identify the assets of the international legal system as well as its gaps. These legal studies are designed to be accessible to water managers with no professional legal background.

    ''The protection of water facilities under international law' by Fredrick Lorenz
    Access the full publication [PDF Format - 1.08 MB]

    'Transforming Potential Conflict into Cooperation Potential: The Role of International Water Law' by Sergei Vinogradov, Patricia Wouters and Patricia Jones
    Access the full publication [PDF Format - 1.6 MB]

    'Institutions for international freshwater management' by Stefano Burchi and Melvin Spreij
    Access the full publication [PDF Format - 823 KB]

Water Law and Standards

This project is a joint initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 1999, the WHO Water, Sanitation and Health Programme and the FAO Legal Office have been collaborating on a number of initiatives linked to water law, health and development.

This website contains a database of national water legislation that is linked to FAO's FAOLEX database of legislation on natural resources.

International Water Law Project

This website was created to provide information on international water law and policy and related topics. Specifically, it offers treaties, articles, news stories, case law, Internet links, and other relevant information.

International Water Law Research Institute (IWLRI)

The IWLRI of the University of Dundee, Scotland aims to develop and share knowledge and expertise in international and national water law and policy so that all citizens, especially the most disadvantaged, have equitable and sustainable access to the worlds water.

This website contains news, links and a water E-law library.

Water policy in the European Union

This site attempts to provide further information on the different pieces of water legislation (and related policies) in the European Community which contribute to a major part that clean water in sufficient quantity becomes a reality all over Europe.

Policy and Law Section of the Water Page website

This section contains information about water policies and laws, related documents and links.

Access a complete list of water links around the world

Access the UNESCO Water Portal Weekly Update archives (starting at issue N° 85)

For contributions or comments, contact the editor at waterportal@unesco.org