Principal speaker
Associate Professor Takele Bulto
This seminar is part of the Socio-Legal Research Centre Seminar Series.
Presented by Associate Professor Takele Bulto, The University of Western Australia
International human rights law has only recently concerned itself with the right to water. Instead, international water law has regulated the use of shared rivers, and only states qua states could claim rights and bear duties towards each other. Even so, international human rights law has so far focused on its principal mission of taming the powers of a state acting territorially. A/Prof Bulto argues that the realisation of the right to water, particularly in Africa but also elsewhere, calls for the need to expand relevant states’ duties to cover those rights holders situated beyond a state’s own territorial jurisdiction who could be affected by a riparian state’s domestic actions related to the use of the shared river.
A/Prof Bulto thus challenges the established analytic boundaries of international water law and international human rights law. By demonstrating the potential complementarity between the two legal regimes and the ensuing utility of regime coordination for the establishment of the human right to water and its extraterritorial application, he also shows that human rights law and the international law of watercourses can apply in tandem with the purpose of protecting non-national non-residents in Africa and beyond. This presentation is based on A/Prof Bulto’s new book, The Extraterritorial Application of the Human Right to Water in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Associate Professor Takele Bulto is currently at The University of Western Australia. A/Prof Bulto’s scholarship challenges the established analytic boundaries of international water law and international human rights law. By demonstrating the potential complementarity between the two legal regimes and the ensuing utility of regime coordination for the establishment of the human right to water and its extraterritorial application, he also shows that human rights law and the international law of watercourses can apply in tandem with the purpose of protecting non-national non-residents in Africa and beyond.
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Event contact details
- Madonna Adcock
- 07 3735 5747