The Dundee Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science (under the auspices of UNESCO) is delighted to announce the launch today of a new interactive learning website for the UN Watercourses Convention.
The UN Watercourses Convention User’s Guide was published in 2012 as a comprehensive guide to aid interpretation and implementation for water practitioners and decision-makers at all levels. Based on this Guide, an interactive website on the Convention has been developed to cater for the multi-faceted ways in which people learn, as well as functioning as a central information portal and advocacy platform for promoting the Convention.
This innovative, interactive online tool includes the following features:
- Easy online navigation to all the specific Articles of the Convention and accompanying guidance materials that have been developed to explain important theoretical/practical aspects for their implementation.
- Multimedia resources including video explanations regarding critical aspects of the Convention by experts in the relevant fields of water law and policy from around the world.
- An online map with links to examples of case studies and workshops from different regions and river basins where work has been, or is still, conducted on the Convention by the Centre and our counterparts.
- Summary ‘Fact Sheets’ giving concise and accessible explanations of key legal provisions and concepts.
- Interactive learning modules such as quizzes to test your knowledge and understanding of the Convention.
The UN Watercourses Convention website is the continuation of extensive work done by the UNWC Global Initiative (a partnership between the Centre, the WWF and Green Cross) aimed at promoting the benefits of the UN Watercourses Convention to all nations with transboundary freshwater rivers, as well as supporting states to ratify the Convention and accelerate its intended entry into force.
For more about the UNWC Global Initiative, click here.
UN Watercourses Convention User’s Guide
Adopted in 1997 by the UN General Assembly, the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention), seeks to, ‘ensure the utilisation, development, conservation, management and protection of international watercourses and the promotion of the optimal and sustainable utilisation thereof for present and future generations’ (Preamble).
The User’s Guide to the UN Watercourses Convention provides an Article by Article explanation of the text of this global framework instrument. In so doing, the Guide explains the meaning and purpose of each Article, and offers guidance on how the rights and obligations of contained therein policymakers and decision makers, implementation agencies and other bodies responsible for transboundary water issues.
To download a PDF of the UN Watercourses Convention User’s Guide, click here.
