International Legal Discourse on Human Right to Water and Sanitation from the Latin American Standpoint

MARTIN, LIBER ALEXIS

Inter-American and European Human Rights Journal

intersentia

Año: 2011 vol. 4 p. 136 - 155

2030-7942

International legal discourse has maintained a debate over the human right to water and sanitation (HRWS) on a superficial level, limited in terms of its recognition and conceptualization, confusing legality and legitimacy. Taking a critical perspective, and concentrating on the Latin America region, the article focuses on the need to go beyond its mere recognition, by identifying false debates and highlighting the paradoxical character of its expression and fulfilment. Based on the thesis of progressive recognition, the author discusses the lack of positive recognition of HRWS as a major problem by pointing out several current challenges: the need for integration in a contradictory and feudal international legal order, as well as into pre-existing institutions of domestic law; the extension of responsibility to corporations; and the implementation of public policies and investments as the main way of achieving its effectiveness. Based on a legal and political analysis of the UN General Assembly resolution (2010), the article explains several aspects of the discourses voiced by different actors, their arguments and contradictions.