Barbara Hendricks: major achievement for international cooperation in the management of water courses
The Federal Environment Ministry welcomes the entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention directed at improving cooperation among riparian countries along rivers. "For the first time a globally applicable legal framework has been established for the cooperation along international water courses. This can also contribute to preventing and peacefully resolving conflicts between states over scarce freshwater resources", Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks explained. The Convention enters into force on Sunday 17 August 2014.
"In view of the limited freshwater resources on our planet, cooperation across borders on the use of these resources is urgently needed", Minister Hendricks went on. The new Convention was "a major step ahead" in the right direction. "It provides us with globally binding rules governing the cooperation along international water courses. It will now be our task to flesh out the Convention and encourage participation of additional countries over the next few years."
The UN Watercourses Convention firmly establishes and develops hitherto unwritten principles of international law on good neighbourly conduct between riparian countries of transboundary inland water bodies and also includes the obligation to use transboundary water courses in an equitable and appropriate manner as well as the requirement to prevent considerable damage on the territory of states in the catchment area of joint water courses.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention in 1997 with a broad majority of votes. Germany signed the Convention in 1998 and ratified it in 2006. Now that Vietnam has deposited the 35th ratification instrument, the prerequisites for its entry into force are fulfilled.
Germany has already been cooperating for a long time with its neighbouring countries in the catchment area of its major rivers. The Agreements on the Protection of the Rivers Rhine, Danube, Elbe and Oder, however, go far beyond the regulations enshrined in the UN Watercourses Convention. Within the framework of the new UN Convention, the Federal Republic is more than willing to share its beneficial experience in transboundary protection of water bodies.
The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, which was signed as early as 1992, will shortly be opened for global participation. The Federal Government believes the two Conventions to be instruments which can complement each other in a meaningful manner and it will work towards making their potential synergies take full effect.