Direito Internacional em matéria de água doce: conteúdo, formas e efetividade

Abstract

This thesis examines different aspects of Public International Law related to ground freshwater and surface freshwater resources. There is a variety of freshwater utilization: water power, water supply, fishing, navigation, leisure, agriculture, industry. However we should remember that water is essential to keep all beings of nature alive. Relationships between countries and inside each country related to the use, regulation and preservation of freshwater are complex and multifaceted. This work intends to discuss the juridical aspects of these questions in a political context of liberal capitalist expansion. This work intends to identify and analyze juridical rules created in a multilateral international sphere, considering their content and possible effects (a) in the conflict resolution between countries for the control and utilization of freshwater, (b) in the establishment of parameters to deal with the environmental crisis and (c) in the resolution of water access problem. First, the work identifies the rules of Public International Law related to this subject, describing the history of the Fluvial International Law, the studies about International Law doctrine and the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997). The second chapter presents the discussion of freshwater in the context of the creation of the International Law of the Enviroment, the realization of conferences and the creation of international forums to discuss water and the development of a human right to water. The third chapter introduces the incipient discussion of the regulation of groundwater utilization. This chapter analyses the works of the UN International Law Comission wich resulted in the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers. The second part of the thesis analyses the application of rules and principles described in the International Law texts in the real cases, confronting them with the solutions proposed in paradigmal water conflict cases, as for instance Gabcikovo-Nagymaros and Papeleras, occurred in Argentina and Uruguay. Both cases have been judged by the International Court of Justice. The case of the Guarani Aquifer a system of aquifers interconnected, located beneath the surface of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is also examined. This aquifer was the object of an international treaty signed for Mercosul countries in August of 2010. Finally, the thesis tries to develop ideas and explanations about the existence (or not) and the effectiveness (or its lack) of the rules of International Law of water resources, considering the concept of state sovereignty, which sometimes is a scapegoat for the lack of signatures in the treaties and votes in declarations. Other times it allows nation states to embrace responsibilities. The conclusion ventures a response about the following questions: Is there an International Law about freshwater? Are the rules of International Law effective? Why do we need International Law rules beyond the simple assertion of their existence as objectives to be attained?