Judicial Enforcement of the Human Right to Water – Case Law from South Africa, Argentina and India

Access to water is fundamental to human life and health. The human right to water finds increasingly recognition
at an international level. Yet, the crucial question remains if and how the right can be enforced. As the legal
enforcement of human rights primarily takes place at the national level, it is interesting to take a look at case law on
the human right to water from different countries.

Case law from South Africa, Argentina and India has been selected for the analysis as all three countries have
developed a remarkable body of case law. They have been following different models regarding the judicial
enforcement of the right to water, thus allowing addressing the variability of options for judicial enforcement.
Courts have dealt with a broad range of issues related to the right to water ranging from concerns over the
availability of sufficient water resources over the lack of access to concerns over water pollution and cases of
disconnections of water services.

In order to understand the scope of the judgments, the paper makes use of the common tripartite distinction of
human rights obligations. States are obliged in different ways bearing duties to respect, to protect and to fulfil. The
latter is often regarded to be the least justiciable. Yet, the paper includes judgments referring to all types of
obligations thus showing that the obligation to fulfil the right to water has also proven to be judicially enforceable.

See at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2008_1/winkler/winkler.pdf