Global Symposium

The 1997 UN Watercourses Convention – What Relevance in the 21^st Century?

5^th – 8^th June 2012, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK

Call for papers

The IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science (under the auspices of UNESCO) and WWF will co-organise a symposium on the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention.  The aim of the symposium is to gather together a wide and diverse range of viewpoints from academia, government, international organisations, and civil society,  to debate the existing and potential relevance of this global framework instrument. 

Towards this endeavour the convenors of the symposium are inviting papers on a range of topics related to the UNWC. The organisors would be particularly keen to receive abstracts that explore,

·      the value of a global framework/ regime for the governance of international watercourses,

·          the lessons that could be learnt from the experiences of entry into force and implementation of other global or regional treaty regimes (e.g. Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Wetlands), and

·      the mechanisms that should be in place to ensure that watercourse conventions are implemented and complied with at the national level.

Paper abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to Dr Alistair Rieu-Clarke (a.rieuclarke@dundee.ac.uk) or Ms Flavia Loures (Flavia.Loures@WWFUS.ORG) by 29^th February 2012. Abstracts will then be reviewed by a scientific steering committee, and participants will be notified no later than Friday 30^th March 2012.

For more information: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/water/unwc/.

The UNWC Global Initiative Symposium will precede the Annual International Law and Transboundary Freshwaters Workshop, which will run from 11^th – 14^th June 2012 – see http://www.dundee.ac.uk/water/workshop/.