Clean water is a fundamental human right... Not according to Canada!

[s_lone]

BBC News - UN declares clean water a 'fundamental human right'

UN declares clean water a 'fundamental human right'

Many people around the world have little or no access to clean drinking water
The UN has declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right.

A non-binding resolution was passed with 122 nations in favour, none against and 41 abstentions.

Abstaining countries said the resolution could undermine a process in the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva to build a consensus on water rights.

Related stories

How can water be fairly distributed?
Where clean water is a pipedream
According to the UN, about 1.5m children under five die each year from water and sanitation-related diseases.

The text of the resolution said that 884m people have no access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6bn lack access to basic sanitation.

It "declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life".

It urges the international community to "scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all".

Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and Botswana were among the countries which abstained from voting.

China, Russia, Germany, France, Spain and Brazil were among those supporting the resolution.

Portuguese lawyer Catarina de Albuquerque is due to report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next year on countries' obligations related to water and sanitation.

US delegate John Sammis said the resolution "falls far short of enjoying the unanimous support of member states and may even undermine the work underway in Geneva".

Some countries said the resolution did not clearly define the scope of the new human right and the obligations it entailed, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN in New York.

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Wow... here's something to be proud of eh?!!!

 

[taxslave]

Actually it is. Our government should not have chickened out by abstaining and voted NO. This is just another attempt by the socialists that control the UN bureaucracy to get something for nothing. This time it is our water. next time it will be to force us to take in a few million refugees on the grounds that we must share our water with them because we signed a resolution that says we will share our water.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Actually it is. Our government should not have chickened out by abstaining and voted NO. This is just another attempt by the socialists that control the UN bureaucracy to get something for nothing. This time it is our water. next time it will be to force us to take in a few million refugees on the grounds that we must share our water with them because we signed a resolution that says we will share our water.

And exactly how are nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia going to get our water? Are they going to build giant undersea piplelines? What this motion is really about is the UN setting clean water as an international standard. I am not sure why Canada abstained from the motion, but it probably had something to do with the Canadian government being reluctant to fund clean water projects in developing countries.

 

[AnnaG]

What fresh water? Less than 1% of the water on the planet is accessible fresh water. Let's boost the population up to 20 billion. YAY!!
Hummins is sooo stooopid sumtimes.

 

[s_lone]

Actually it is. Our government should not have chickened out by abstaining and voted NO. This is just another attempt by the socialists that control the UN bureaucracy to get something for nothing. This time it is our water. next time it will be to force us to take in a few million refugees on the grounds that we must share our water with them because we signed a resolution that says we will share our water.

So it's an evil socialist plot isn't it? The evil poor of this planet are planning to take over our water!!!

 

[Cliffy]

So it's an evil socialist plot isn't it? The evil poor of this planet are planning to take over our water!!!

This reminds me of an old spoof song (I think it was in Mad magazine from the 60s).
"Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Reds
They are hiding in our closets
They are hinding 'neath our beds"

 

[captain morgan]

And exactly how are nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia going to get our water? Are they going to build giant undersea piplelines? What this motion is really about is the UN setting clean water as an international standard. I am not sure why Canada abstained from the motion, but it probably had something to do with the Canadian government being reluctant to fund clean water projects in developing countries.

You need to consider the ramifications of this declaration.

The UN declares water/sanitation a basic human right. There are only a few options that represent compliance. You move the people to the clean water, you move the water to the people or you drill wells and install facilities. Those regions/nations that don't uphold that standard do not comply for reasons of lack of political will or lack of money (generally speaking).

There will be many regions that won't comply and when this happens, the UN will step up and bang their drum about the responsibility of member nations to provide this basic human right.... Guess who will be forking out the cash?

In terms of the UN "socialist plot", the related links say volumes.

How can water be fairly distributed?
Where clean water is a pipedream

 

[CDNBear]

BBC News - UN declares clean water a 'fundamental human right'


Wow... here's something to be proud of eh?!!!

Actually yes...

You need to consider the ramifications of this declaration.

The UN declares water/sanitation a basic human right. There are only a few options that represent compliance. You move the people to the clean water, you move the water to the people or you drill wells and install facilities. Those regions/nations that don't uphold that standard do not comply for reasons of lack of political will or lack of money (generally speaking).

There will be many regions that won't comply and when this happens, the UN will step up and bang their drum about the responsibility of member nations to provide this basic human right.... Guess who will be forking out the cash?

In terms of the UN "socialist plot", the related links say volumes.

How can water be fairly distributed?
Where clean water is a pipedream

And that's why.

Well said Captain.

 

[TenPenny]

It's one thing to agree with the motherhood statement that everyone should have clean water.

It's a whole different thing when this is used to force nations to provide water for others, or to change and/or limit what nations can do with their own water supplies.

 

[Machjo]

Actually it is. Our government should not have chickened out by abstaining and voted NO. This is just another attempt by the socialists that control the UN bureaucracy to get something for nothing. This time it is our water. next time it will be to force us to take in a few million refugees on the grounds that we must share our water with them because we signed a resolution that says we will share our water.

I'm undecided as to whether the resolution itself is a good one or not. However, even if it is a good resolution, I'd rather Canada abstain and then perhaps live up to it rather than vote for it for the photo opportunity and then ignore it. There are already plenty of UN, UNESCO, and other resolutions that Canada voted for or signed on to yet still does not respect.

Looking at it that way, Canada should not vote in favour of any new resolution until it starts to abide by the resolutions that are already in place.

Let's face it, the only thing worse than a country that does not abide by international agreements is one that votes in favour of them and then still does not abide by them.

In that sense, the Government of Canada today is a tad bit better than previously in that at least it's honest about its intention not to live up to that resolution, unlike before when it signed on to each and every resolution for the photo opportunity and then ignored it.

 

[EagleSmack]

There will be many regions that won't comply and when this happens, the UN will step up and bang their drum about the responsibility of member nations to provide this basic human right.... Guess who will be forking out the cash?

In terms of the UN "socialist plot", the related links say volumes.

How can water be fairly distributed?
Where clean water is a pipedream

That's right Captain.

Do you really think this is a simple resolution or declaration? This means get the water to the countries that need it at tour countries expense or pay. Of course it will be curved cost so nations like Canada and the US will end up carrying the load once again.

 

[Praxius]

This is more like the first step towards allowing other nations to place the other nations who hold the water over their knee and spank the resources out of them because they feel their sovereign natural resources are their god given right to take..... it'll be the first step in forcing our nation to begin exporting our water to everybody else around the world until we have nothing left.

Hell why don't we just open up our waters for every other nation to come along and suck the fish out of the ocean like many are already doing in their waters?

It's the same damn thing with all those poor people starving in Africa who beg us to send donations every 10 minutes on CTV News Channel, they're too poor and decrepit to even bother to improve their own countries and quality of life and through so many decades of these christian fund and other funding groups just handing them out all our money and resources for them to suck dry, they grow dependent and needy for those funds and resources because they're raised in a society where that's all there is to look forward to.

All this crap talk about giving them money to go to school and get an education is an obvious waste of time because they've been schooling and educating these poor schmucks for as long as I can remember and those countries don't seem to be getting any better and they're still begging and asking for food, money, water, medicine, etc. etc.

Children who were being funded by these groups with handouts have been getting all this since before I was even born, which means those children should be adults now with their own children, they should have education and thus one would think they would have worked on getting jobs, helping out their communities, developing, creating businesses, etc.... thus, being able to feed and take care of their own children.

But no.... instead we're still being asked to send over our money to send their lame ass kids off to get educated too because somehow their parents whom were being given money and an education earlier some how fuct it all up and nothing has changed.

All that has happened is that we are continually prolonging a begger society who don't know how to do anything else besides beg other nations to keep them going.

What's that old saying?

Give a man a fish or Teach a man how to Fish.

Right now these decrepit places where so many are dying and is such a horrible state of affairs are being given out hand outs, money, water, food, resources, etc..... big bags of rice tossed off of trucks and hundreds squabble and fight to grab what they can and then wait next week or next month to do it all again when the next shipment from a sucker country comes in.

It'd be far cheaper to teach these people how to make their own water pumps and sanitation systems so they can sustain themselves, rather then making some stupid UN resolution that gives them the right to continually beg and demand us to send them the crap they should be able to do themselves..... they're humans just like you and I, thus they're not complete morons, they're just lazy or don't have the motivation... they have the same capabilities as you and I, there is no excuse..... When they can learn how to make their own wells or produce/filter their own fresh water, they can then start growing their own food properly or develop other key resources which can thus produce more jobs, more money for themselves and perhaps even lead up to them being able to export something, rather then continually suck from everybody else.

Education is/should be a human right... it shouldn't be a right for people to beg and force others to prolong one's uselessness because they're too stupid/uneducated to do anything about their own problems.

I'm all for socialism in many aspects of life, but this approach I do not approve of.

There is nothing in this proposal that solves the overall problems, it just will open up a door towards many making the excuse to sap other nations of what resources they have left..... and then what happens when even their resources are almost gone?

Who do they turn to in order to exercise their rights to water that they no longer have because everybody else took it already and they don't have any to give back?

It's an exercise in disaster for everybody and only prolongs the suffering and begging which will only get larger in scale as time goes on and our population continues to expand.

Teach them how to produce their own sanitation and fresh water..... don't just hand it over like a chump.

 

[Machjo]

And exactly how are nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia going to get our water? Are they going to build giant undersea piplelines? What this motion is really about is the UN setting clean water as an international standard. I am not sure why Canada abstained from the motion, but it probably had something to do with the Canadian government being reluctant to fund clean water projects in developing countries.

Read what I just typed above. Regardless of whether the resolution is a good one or not, judging by Canada's track record of abiding by resolutions anyway, should we not focus on living up to the resolutions already passed before signin on to new ones? Resolutions are not meant as political photo opportunities. They're meant to actually be abided by. So seeing Canada's track record, we already look ridiculous in the eyes of the world for ignoring so many resolutions (the only solace being that we fall in a small majority category:-(). Rather than adding even more resolutions to the list of resolutions we like to show support for and then ignore, how about we focus instead on living up to the resolutions that are already in place.

 

[CDNBear]

How did I know there would be a lot of hot air here.

 

[EagleSmack]

"Send us the water... you can't? Then send us money to dig wells. We'll put it in the UN Clean Water Fund."

-Fake UN Quote

 

[Machjo]

As for a solution to help those without water resources, I think Canada could sign on, albeit a little belatedly by a few decades, to the Atlantic Charter:

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER (1941)

I think this would be another way to grant countries easier access to Canadian water. But again, if we're not going to abide by that Charter to the fullest, then let's not sign it just for the photo opportunity.

How did I know there would be a lot of hot air here.

So what are you saying: that we should sign on and then ignore the resolution? I thought you said above we should not sign on to it. If that's the case, then my quote above agrees with it. I'm not following your logic here.

All I'm saying Bear is that if we're not going to live up to a resolution, then let's not sign it. And inversely, if we're going to sign a resolution, then let's live up to it. I don't care either way, but let's not sign them for the photo op. On that front, I actually agree with Harper in that at east he won't sign it for the photo op, unlike the Liberals before him.

 

[EagleSmack]

As for a solution to help those without water resources, I think Canada could sign on, albeit a little belatedly by a few decades, to the Atlantic Charter:

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER (1941)

I think this would be another way to grant countries easier access to Canadian water. But again, if we're not going to abide by that Charter to the fullest, then let's not sign it just for the photo opportunity.



.

Without reading the document, are you willing to once again open your treasury again to pay corrupt governments? Easier access to your water supplies most likely means you have to get the water to them. How are they going to afford it? If they don't have clean water they surely don't have a means to pay.

 

[AnnaG]

I'm undecided as to whether the resolution itself is a good one or not. However, even if it is a good resolution, I'd rather Canada abstain and then perhaps live up to it rather than vote for it for the photo opportunity and then ignore it. There are already plenty of UN, UNESCO, and other resolutions that Canada voted for or signed on to yet still does not respect.

Looking at it that way, Canada should not vote in favour of any new resolution until it starts to abide by the resolutions that are already in place.

Let's face it, the only thing worse than a country that does not abide by international agreements is one that votes in favour of them and then still does not abide by them.

In that sense, the Government of Canada today is a tad bit better than previously in that at least it's honest about its intention not to live up to that resolution, unlike before when it signed on to each and every resolution for the photo opportunity and then ignored it.

Why? It's only the UN. All nations are not members. Canada could very well sign something that says each person has the right to water.
"Let them come and get it. Oh shucks, they can't afford to come get it? Then perhaps some generous companies could set up desalinization plants in those countries."
Canada donates enough to countries in need.

 

[Machjo]

Without reading the document, are you willing to once again open your treasury again to pay corrupt governments? Easier access to your water supplies most likely means you have to get the water to them. How are they going to afford it? If they don't have clean water they surely don't have a means to pay.

Did you even read the Atlantic Charter?

Here it is in full:


THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.

First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;

Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;

Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;

Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;

Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;

Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;

Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;

Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Winston S. Churchill


OK, Eaglesmack, just read the Fourth principle again. Are you against the free trade of resources on the world market as a means of helping poorer nations that may not otherwise have access to such resources? We're not talking about charity here, but trade. What's the issue with that? Have you caught Obamitis and now are the protectionist par excellence?

 

[AnnaG]

That's right Captain.

Do you really think this is a simple resolution or declaration? This means get the water to the countries that need it at tour countries expense or pay. Of course it will be curved cost so nations like Canada and the US will end up carrying the load once again.

We could always tell the UN to stuff it. What could the UN do? Basically the only teeth the UN has is the teeth its chief security member has and that's the US. I suppose they could shoehorn China into the role but I doubt China would be happy about it judging by its concern for humans.