71 Protection of the Human Right to Water Under International Law The Need for a New Legal Framework 1 Jordan Daci, Dr Head of Public Law Department, Wisdom University, Tirana, Albania Abstract The human right to water enitles everyone to suicient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and afordable water for personal and domesic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydraion, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and to provide for consumpion, cooking, personal and domesic hygienic requirements. 2 Indeed, the right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essenial for securing an adequate standard of living, paricularly since it is one of the most fundamental condiions for survival. 3 Thus, the human right to life doesn’t have any sense without the right to water and other vital human rights that are a pre-condiion for human life. Consequently, the enjoyment of the human right to water is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of other basic human rights such as the right to the highest atainable standard of health and the rights to adequate housing and adequate food etc. 4 Nevertheless, today in this era of quasi irreversible clime changes as well as very extensive increase use of natural fresh water resources, their quanity and quality is signiicantly decreased. From this perspecive, the future of the enire mankind depends mostly in the preservaion of world natural water resources. However their preservaion requires from mankind a new world approach that would include inter alia the following steps: the adopion of a new internaional treaty on world environmental protecion, the establishment of the World Water Authority under UN that would deal with issues such as the protecion, management and use of internaional waters, ICJ shall be empowered with biding jurisdicion to exanimate inter-state disputes over internaional watercourses, a new internaional treaty on Aric shall be adapted at least to address environmental concerns, and inally Internaional Humanitarian Law shall address other environmental protecion issues raised by enormous development of weapons destrucion power including avoidance of loopholes that allow derogaions from these treaies obligaions. Certainly, any failure to do so, will undoubtedly lead mankind to future massive wars that shall be mostly fought for water rather than for oil. 1 Conference paper presented at the Internaional Conference: WATER – HISTORY, RESOURCES, PERSPECTIVES. Co-organized by the Academcy of Sciences of Austria and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. 5-7 November 2010, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. 2 United Naion’s Commitee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. General Comment No. 15 (2002) The right to water (arts. 11 and 12 of the Internaional Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). E/C.12/2002/11. 2003. Para. 2. 3 Ibid. 4 United Naion’s Commitee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. General Comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest atainable standard of health. E/C.12/2000/4. 2000. Para. 11, 12 15 etc.