The Right to Water

Water is essential to life - no one should be able to control it or expropriate it for profit. In the current global water crisis, billions of people still lack access to basic water and sanitation services. Everyday, thousands of people die from preventable diseases contracted because they do not have access to clean water.

The majority of those dying are children under the age of five.

The right to water has been recognized internationally through the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. But in 2002, the Canadian government was the only one to vote against accepting water as a human right at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Moreover, the Walkerton Inquiry found that the right to water does not exist in Canadian legislation. As such, our government’s position, both internationally and domestically, continues to deny the fundamental human right to water.

Why would our government take a stance that is so out of line with Canadian values?

The world’s water companies would like to see water regarded as a human need, enabling them to control and sell water to the highest bidder for profit. Because Canada manages the largest freshwater resources in the world, companies are lining up to pump, bottle and privatize our water for their profit. Despite the increasing threat to our water, the Canadian government has not updated its national water policy in over 15 years. Instead, governments over this period of time have continued to support free trade agreements that only further threaten our ability to safeguard our water for people and nature.

The Council of Canadians has had a long-standing campaign nationally and internationally through our Blue Planet Project to declare water as a human right. We must ensure that water remains a human right that is public, protected, and priceless.

What you can do:

• Act for Canada’s Waters: Join your local Council of Canadians chapter and get involved in protecting water in your community. For more information on our local chapters, please click here.

Publications:

• Frequently Asked Questions: A UN covenant for the human right to water
• Fact Sheet: Five things you should know about Canada's position on the right to water
• Fact Sheet: A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water
• Fact Sheet: Global water movement grows in numbers and force
• Climate change threats put human right to water in the spotlight, Canadian Perspectives, Spring 2010
• Taking on the privatizers at the World Water Forum, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2009
• Maude Barlow warns United Nations General Assembly about growing water crisis, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2009
• Bringing the fight for the right to water to the United Nations, Canadian Perspectives, Spring 2009
• A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water needs to change, Canadian Perspectives Spring 2007
• Taking back the World Water Forum, Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2006
• Report: Passage to India: A report on the People's World Water Forum and the World Social Forum, January 2004

For more information on the issue of water as a human right please see:

• WIN! United Nations passes right to water resolution, Blog post by Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians, July 28, 2010
• Canada must support the right to water, Embassy, Maude Barlow, Meera Karunananthan, and Anil Naidoo, July 21, 2010
• A human right Canada rejects: Access to clean water, The Toronto Star, Maude Barlow and Anil Naidoo, June 13, 2010
• Letter sent to all UN Missions from Maude Barlow requesting support for human right to water and sanitation initiative, July 6, 2010
• Briefing Notes by Maude Barlow that explore why a UN Convention on the Right to Water is an idea whose time has come (November 2006)
• Water is a Human Right
• Blue Planet Project
• Development and Peace
• Association pour un Contrat Mondiale de l'Eau