On The Right To Water

The paper discussed the general problem of the right to water from the theory and practice of international human rights, including the concept, the content, the historical development and the nature of the right to water. It also discussed the general subject of the right to water, the special rights of special protection to community, and the subject of obligation of the right to water, the nature and content of nation's obligation, and the implementation and the relief of the rights to clean drinking water.The right to water refers to the rights that get it in born and cannot transfer to the others to everyone, which it is used in individual and the family life advocating to the country or government sufficiency, safely, acceptably, easily, and reasonably, according to the"International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights"and"General Comment No.15: the rights to water (International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on articles 11 and 12 )". The core content of the right to water is to get sufficiently, safely, and easily, and the reasonable price."Sufficiency"is the request of quantity,"security"is the request of standard of quality,"accepting and using easily, the reasonable price"emphasize the acceptability of water. The drinking referred in rights to clean water refers to drinking water and the related right on clean drinking water, it specifically refers to use beverage water and food water. The initial period of the rights to clean drinking water is concealment in other human rights, for example the rights of health, the rights of food and the rights to the suitable level of living and so on, which the rights to clean drinking water has the overlapping connection with these human rights. In nature, the right to water is one kind of fundamental human rights. Because the rights to clean drinking water has met three standards, they are the practical feasible standard, universal standard, important standard. So it is one kind of essential human rights, and the essential condition of living dignity.Generally speaking, the right to water includes freedom and qualification. The freedom refers to the essential rights of using water supplied, which it is not intervened by others. The qualification refers to the rights to using the system of water tube, it provides equal opportunity to enjoy clean water for people. Actually the right to water has three aspects in nature, such as resverable, suitable and acquirable. Although the status resources and the development condition of many countries and areas are different, the three aspects of nature, they are reservable, suitable and acquirable, are suitable for all situations. The nature of reservable is the request in the aspect of quantity. The nature of suitable is the request in the aspect of supplement of quality. The nature of acquirable is the possibility and of realization of the rights to clean drinking water, it stressed that the facility and equipment of supplying water must open to everyone not discriminately in the signatory state. The nature of acquirable includes four overlap aspects, which they are the nature of acquirement easily, the economical feasibility, no discriminating, the nature of acquiring information. The subject of the right to water is the unit of universality and particularity. As a fundamental human right, it should be enjoyed by everyone at any time under any condition. At the same time, the individuals and groups difficult in the exercise of the right to clean drinking water should also be pay special attention. The general subject of the right to clean drinking water is anyone, which is a "natural person". Although the right to water is the main body of each individual, but in practice, some groups are more vulnerable, which should be of particular concerned. That some people or groups are called by the committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights "most vulnerable groups" or "special disadvantaged groups", including: women, children, minorities, indigenous peoples, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, migrant workers, prisoners and detainees, as well as other people who have been particularly affected.The state is the main subject of obligation of the right to water. The state has the primary responsibility of the realization of the right to water. In fact, the obligation of the state is a progressive obligation and minimum obligation. It has triple obligations: respect, protection and fulfillment. The obligation to respect requires states to refrain from any action that would impede the right to water; the obligation to protect requires states to take measures to ensure that the other subjects of law shall not deprive individuals of their access to clean drinking water; and the obligation to fulfill means that states must actively carry out practical activities , to provide people with access to clean drinking water opportunities, and to ensure safe drinking water. The obligation to respect, in essence ,is negative obligation and the obligation to protect and to fulfil are positive. It can be said that the realization of the right to water is the national obligations of the organic unity of negative and positive. Apart from the three levels of obligations, the right to clean drinking water also requires international cooperation, assistance and the need to immediately implement their core obligations.As the mechanisms for the implementation of human rights in general, the implementation of the right to water are mainly determined by the mechanism at the international level and the national level. Implementation mechanism at the international level terms, mainly refers to the "supervision" and the purpose of monitoring states to fulfil their obligations;the national level mainly refers to "perform." The domestic level on the implementation mechanism of the implementation of the right to water is the basis and key. The international level, includes the implementation of the reporting system, complaints system as well as other relevant special procedures; the national level includes the implementation of the legislation, the judiciary and the administrative.In contemporary China, a number of issues that must be resolved. For a considerable number of people, the realization of the right to clean drinking water is only preliminary, very inadequate. There is a large gap between the fact in China with the international requirements in the realization of the right to clean drinking water. These problems are mainly reflected in the following aspects :clean drinking water in China is still scarce resources, difficulties in the huge population of drinking water, the urban-rural dual system constraints to the implementation of clean drinking water, China's relevant laws and regulations are inadequate, inadequate protection, and so on reality. Subject the right to water in China is to be achieved, first of all, we should adopt comprehensive measures.