GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, with Pakistan securing an important diplomatic achievement by ensuring an explicit reference to cross-border water cooperation.
According to the report, Pakistan played an active role in retaining the reference to transboundary water cooperation in the final text of the resolution. India had attempted to remove the reference to cross-border water cooperation from the resolution.
The resolution was presented by Germany and Spain. Pakistan actively worked to ensure that transboundary water cooperation remained part of the final text.
The 47-member UN Human Rights Council adopted the resolution by consensus. For the first time, the resolution explicitly recognised that cooperation over transboundary water resources is directly linked to the realisation of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Speaking on the occasion of the resolution’s adoption, Pakistan’s First Secretary Adeel Khokhar outlined the country’s principled position on shared water resources.
He said that where water is shared, responsibilities are also shared, adding that cooperation over shared waters between neighbouring countries is not a matter of favour or concession but a shared responsibility.
Adeel Khokhar said no upstream country could use water as a tool of political pressure or influence. He stressed that water should be managed according to the principles of cooperation and mutual responsibility rather than being used as an instrument of political pressure.
