LEGAL / POLICY PAPERS


IUCN Asia Regional Office, 2016

This paper contains a legal analysis of how the UN Watercourses Convention complements the Mekong Agreement’ based on a comparative analysis of key substantive and procedural principles and obligations.


Hamid Sarfraz, Water International, 2013

This article analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in light of the UN Watercourses Convention and elaborates on proposals for strengthening the IWT. Some of thes proposals include the incorporation of provisions related to joint research initiatives, optimal use of available resources through mutually negotiated trade-offs, a joint climate change adaptation strategy, consideration of environmental flow needs, and joint water development and energy generation.

Alejandro Iza, Juan Carlos Sanchez and Matt Hulse, IUCN Environmental Law Centre, 2014

This paper reviews how with the entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention, the international community started facing a unique situation: the presence of two global, legally binding instruments concerning the management of transboundary watercourses. The UN Watercourses Convention will stand alongside the UNECE Water Convention. While it is unusual to have two such instruments regulating the same issue, it cannot necessarily be said that this is an unfavourable situation. If coordinated effectively, these legal instruments have the potential to make significant contribution to addressing transboundary water challenges around the world. countries seeking to ratify and implement one, or both, of these conventions, there are a number of questions to consider if the international community hopes to successfully navigate these unfamiliar legal waters.

Alejandro Iza, Alexandra MĂĽller and Valentina Nozza, IUCN Environmental Law Centre, 2014

This paper explains the challenges encountered in the implementation of adaptive water governance on the ground by applying the ecosystem based approach.

Remy Kinna, Alistair Rieu-Clarke and Flavia Rocha Loures

This discussion paper considers the relationship between the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC) and the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE Water Convention), and the options for ensuring their coordinated implementation in the future. Such a discussion is important given the prospects of both conventions existing as global treaties in force on the same subject matter of transboundary water cooperation. IUCN, in the framework of its water law and governance project portfolio, launched several pilot projects in Central America

testing the principles of adaptive water governance on the ground by applying the ecosystem based approach. This paper explains the challenges encountered and presents the lessons learned from these projects.


Scroll to Top