International Law and Policy Governing Water

This chapter brings together key international legal instruments of the water sector, which provide the context and inform developments at the national level. The chapter starts with a section on the human right to water, as embodied in international treaties, UN General Assembly Resolutions and General Comment 15. The second section looks at protection and regulation of water and includes key soft law instruments, including the Stockholm Declaration, 1972 and the Dublin Statement, 1992. The last section focuses on what is more traditionally understood as international water law and reproduces the main framework treaty in the field, the UN Watercourses Convention, 1997, the proposed global framework for transboundary aquifers and a bilateral treaty (the Indus Water Treaty), which are of special relevance to India.