The Extraterritorial Application of the Human Right to Water in Africa

Takele Soboka Bulto argues that the realisation of the right to water calls for the need to expand relevant states' duties to cover those rights holders situated beyond a state's own territorial jurisdiction who could be affected by that state's domestic actions related to the use of the shared river.

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International human rights law has only recently concerned itself with water. Instead, international water law has regulated the use of shared rivers, and only states qua states could claim rights and bear duties towards each other. International human rights law has focused on its principal mission of taming the powers of a state acting territorially. Takele Soboka Bulto challenges the established analytic boundaries of international water law and international human rights law. By demonstrating the potential complementarity between the two legal regimes and the ensuing utility of regime coordination for the establishment of the human right to water and its extraterritorial application, he also shows that human rights law and the international law of watercourses can apply in tandem with the purpose of protecting non-national non-residents in Africa and beyond.