The UN Convention on International Watercourses and integrated water management: A bridge built

Abstract

The Convention on the Law of the Non Navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (hereinafter UN) in May 1997. The Convention incorporates principles regarding the management of international rivers and lakes and makes an attempt to compromise the rights as well as the interests of the upstream and downstream states. The most important principles are the duty of the riparian states to cooperate, not to cause significant harm, to protect the aquatic environment and to utilize the watercourses reasonably and equitably. The lack of hierarchy between these principles of international water law within the UN Convention signifies that what the necessary step for the sound management of shared natural resources is an integrated approach that takes into account economic development, human needs and environmental protection. The holistic approach of the international legal text is reflected in article 6 of the Convention, which enumerates a list of non exhaustive relevant factors that the riparian states should respect when managing an international watercourse. The path curved by the UN Convention is the most appropriate, efficient and aligned with the notion of sustainable development. Moreover, the UN Convention, as the first international legal framework for the management of water resources, proved to be useful for the International Court of Justice (hereinafter ICJ) when it was challenged with the settlement of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dispute between Hungary and Slovakia for the Danube River. The Court used the Convention as a cornerstone tool in order to reach its decision and highlighted its importance by reminding the riparian states of their obligation to abide by its principles. On the other hand, the ICJ has used the Convention in the pending case of Pulp Mills between Uruguay and Argentina for Uruguay River. Despite the fact that the dispute regards the environmental protection of the river, the Court has not failed to notice in its dictum for provisional measures the obligation of the states to respect the principles of the UN Convention in toto. This paper is going to make an attempt to examine the UN Convention and show that the intention of the drafters of the text was to create an international legal framework, which is going to provide the states with the general guidelines in order to create regional conventions for the protection of shared rivers, lakes and aquifers, bearing always in mind that integrated water management could deal with the emerging challenges of international water law and help to avoid potential future conflicts.