Strathclyde Law School Awarded Consultancy on the Right to Water by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization

September 2017: The Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) and the Strathclyde Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law have been awarded an international consultancy by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to prepare a seminal study on the right to water for food and agriculture.

The study will address a series of cutting-edge research questions at the intersection of international human rights and environmental law, such as: does the human right to water extend to water use for agriculture and food production? What does a human rights-based approach mean for the governance of water resources? And are there extraterritorial human rights obligations in the governance of transboundary waters? The study will analyse international water law, international human rights law and international biodiversity law, as well as trends in national water legislation and in transboundary watercourse agreements.

The study is expected to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.4, which reads: "By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity," while improving the capacities of governments and stakeholders to develop and implement legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms to realize the right to adequate food and to promote secure and equitable access to resources and assets.

The two Centres run the LLM in Global Environmental Law and Governance and the LLM in Human Rights Law.