Recently, Ivory Coast became the 10th African country to sign the UN Water Convention.
UNECE Water Convention
- About: The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) is an international environmental agreement and one of the five environmental treaties negotiated by UNECE.
- Adoption: It was adopted in Helsinki in 1992 and came into effect in 1996.
- Requirements for Parties: Parties must prevent, control, and reduce transboundary impact, use transboundary waters reasonably and equitably, and ensure their sustainable management.
- Cooperation: Parties sharing transboundary waters must cooperate by entering into specific agreements and establishing joint bodies.
- Framework Agreement: The Convention does not replace bilateral and multilateral agreements for specific basins or aquifers but encourages their establishment, implementation, and further development.
- Significance: The Water Convention is a powerful tool to promote and operationalize the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs.
- It directly supports implementation of target 6.5, which requests all countries to implement integrated water resources management, including through transboundary cooperation, as appropriate.
- The Convention and its programme of work are also relevant for other SDGs, such as all the other targets of goal, but also: goals 2, 7, 13, 15, 16, 17 and target 11.5.
- Expansion: The Convention was originally negotiated as a regional framework for the pan-European region. Following an amendment procedure, since March 2016 all UN Member States can accede to it
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
- About: It was established on March 28, 1947, and is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
- Its headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Aim: To promote economic cooperation and integration among its member states.
- Members: The commission consists of 56 member states, primarily from Europe, with several from outside the region. Its transcontinental Eurasian and non-European members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the USA, and Uzbekistan.