International Law

Report on the human rights aspect of private sector participation in the water sector

Quick blogging. Finally the long awaited report from the Independent Expert (IE) is out.

The report emphasize the importance of transparency, participation and accountability in water projects involving the private sector. On the transparency side, the IE even suggests that "Commercial confidentiality must not jeopardize the transparency requirements provided for under the human rights framework". Finally, she conclude and recommends that "The process of decision-making and implementation, any instruments that delegate service provision including contracts, and instruments that outline roles and responsibilities must be transparent, which requires the disclosure of adequate and sufficient information and actual access to information".

I hope this report ends the long speculation that the human right to water means outlawing ?privatisation?. It does not and is never meant to be as such. The discourse on water has been cluttered with the privatisation debate. This report outline that the word ?privatisation? itself is dilemmatic and the problem does not end there. Privatization has its problem and so does non-delegated or state-owned services. The real problem is governance, whether the service is public or private or hybrid.

More discussions follows.

Read the full report here.

Relevant posts:

Transparency in Water Services
Indonesian Water Services Suffering from a Lack of Governance
14 Disturbing Facts about Jakarta's Water
Where to complain for bad water services ? a comparison
Jakarta?s water crisis, whose fault?
Human Right  Aspects of Private Sector Participation in the Water Sector
Is water a commodity or human rights?
The human right to water is not a property right
Why busy with the right to water instead of governance
Consultation on the Human Right  Aspects of Private Sector Participation in the Water Sector: more responses from the private sector
The Economist and the human right to water
Transparency Agenda in Water Utilities Regulation
Hukum Air (Water Law) is not really a topic in Indonesia
Papers:
Safeguarding water contracts in Indonesia
Constitutional Court review and the future of water law in Indonesia
Presentation:
Anticipating water trade

Full post as published by Indonesian Law Reporter (ILR) on July 15, 2010 (boomark / email).