Informal Gathering of the Parties to the UN Watercourses Convention

At the invitation of Germany, Finland and the Netherlands the Parties to the UN Watercourses Convention met in Paris on 15 and 16 September 2015. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, as it is officially called, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997. However, it did not enter into force until August 2014 when the 35th Party, Viet Nam, ratified the treaty.

The Convention lays down important rules relating to transboundary waters, for example their equitable and reasonable utilization and the obligation to ensure that the utilization of watercourses does not cause significant harm in another country. Germany, Finland and the Netherlands organised the gathering to discuss with the other Parties how the Convention should be managed in future. It does not have an institutional structure, which means no secretariat, no working groups and no conference of the Parties. 22 of the current 36 Parties to the Convention participated in the meeting, which took place at the UNESCO headquarters.

The first day of the meeting was exclusively open to these Parties, whilst on the second day they were joined by other interested countries, international organisations, agencies and NGOs. It became apparent that there is great interest in the Convention, but not yet a clear preference of the Parties for either setting up an institutional structure specifically for the Convention or using existing platforms such as the UNECE Water Convention. The countries agreed to discuss the issue further and stay in touch. They also want to improve information on the Convention and canvass other countries for its ratification.