Keynote: The human right to water as a governance mechanism and political tool

Date: Thursday 22 August
Time: 09:00-11:00
Venue: Bergen Global, Jekteviksbakken 31

This event is part of the Bergen Exchanges 2019. For a full schedule of the week’s events, see here.

Keynote by Leo Heller (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water): The Human right to water as a governance mechanism and political tool.

Water is an increasingly scarce resource with pressures from growing populations and industrial developments depleting and polluting water resources, with situations additionally exacerbated by climate change. This keynote and roundtable discusses whether and how the adoption of the right to water as a human right can contribute towards better and more just water governance and improved access to water for poor and marginalized people.

The keynote lecture will be followed by a roundtable Elevating water rights to human rights: Has it strengthened marginalized peoples’ claim for water? The roundtable will be chaired by Bruce Wilson and will present findings from the LawTransform project on “Water Rights as Human Rights.” Paticipants include Lara Cortes (CMI), Namita Wahi (CPR, Delhi), Evelyn Villareal (PEN, Costa Rica) Malcom Langford (UiO) and Rebecca Sciel (UCF) tbc*