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iplomacy
joined a workshop on the Helsinki Convention held in
Buenos Aires. There is plainly a globalization both of
treaties and of interest in these treaties.
Naturally, countries wish to understand the benefits
of transboundary water cooperation which, though
they may appear obvious, vary significantly according
to many factors, including the upstream or downstream
position, the levels of economic development and inter-
national trade, and governance structures. To answer
countries’ questions, work has begun under the Helsinki
Convention to produce guidance on the identification,
quantification and communication of the wide range of
benefits of transboundary water cooperation. By enabling
the identification of benefits to be shared in a broader
sense – that is, benefits derived from the use of water
in the comprehensive understanding of the convention
including, for instance, use related to human health,
economic and social aspects – rather than focusing on
water allocation only, this activity should also provide
opportunities for further broadening cooperation.
Some of the benefits of cooperation are well known
to the water policy community – such as health and
and Scheldt, and for the lakes Geneva, Ohrid and Peipsi – inspired
or influenced by the convention.
An important strength of the convention lies in its institutional
framework that stems from its governing body, the Meeting of the
Parties, supported by intergovernmental working groups, task forces
and a permanent secretariat. That institutional framework assists
parties in the implementation and progressive development of the
convention, including through the exchange of experience and
good practices, elaboration of guidelines and recommendations, the
development of legally-binding protocols and capacity development.
In other words, a party is not left alone to implement the conven-
tion: its needs and expectations may be brought to the attention of
the institutions that underpin the convention.
UNECE is supporting parties and other states in implementing the
convention and establishing transboundary agreements, including in
previous conflict areas and unstable regions, such as the Sava and Drin
river basins in the former Yugoslavia, the Dniester River between the
Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, and the Kura River in the Caucasus.
As of July 2013, 38 countries plus the European Union have
joined the convention, from Portugal in the west to Kazakhstan
and the Russian Federation in the east; the most recent to join was
Turkmenistan, in 2012. (There are 56 member states of UNECE but
several – notably some island states – do not share water resources
with other member states.)
These agreements and joint bodies are significant achievements,
as are similar successes in many other transboundary basins around
the world, but many transboundary basins and aquifers worldwide
still lack such agreements and institutions. More efforts are needed
to facilitate transboundary agreements and joint institutions for all
transboundary basins and aquifers, to provide strong and long-term
transboundary cooperation for the benefit of populations, economies
and nature. The convention provides a unique intergovernmental
platform for those efforts.
Back in 2003, the parties to the convention, realizing its effec-
tiveness and that there was nothing specifically ‘European’ about
its provisions, decided to amend it so that countries in other
regions of the world could also benefit from this valuable frame-
work. This desire was echoed by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations
Secretary-General, in 2012: “I encourage countries outside
the UNECE region to join the convention and contribute to its
further development”. At last, after a decade’s wait, the amend-
ment entered into force in February 2013, making a great start to
the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation. It is
expected that countries outside the UNECE region will begin to
join the convention in 2014.
The International Year of Water Cooperation may also see the entry
into force of a second global treaty on transboundary water coop-
eration: the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses
of International Watercourses, negotiated by the United Nations
International Law Commission and adopted by the General Assembly
in New York in 1997. These two treaties, with slightly differing but
totally complementary approaches to transboundary water coopera-
tion, provide countries with a comprehensive legal framework for
cooperation. At the time of writing, 30 countries from around the
globe had joined the New York Convention. Meanwhile, over 50
countries from outside the UNECE region have already been involved
in activities under the Helsinki Convention and several of them have
expressed interest in joining the convention. For example, in June
2013, about 20 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean
Most of the rural population in the Caucasus and Central Asia lacks
access to piped water on premises
Image: UNECE