Finland's cooperation in managing transboundary waters and the UNECE Principles for Effective Joint Bodies: Value for water diplomacy?

摘要

Water diplomacy may be understood broadly as the measures that may be taken to prevent or peacefully resolve conflicts over water resources concerning their availability, allocation or use between and within states. The concept is preventive in nature as well as offering an approach for conflict resolution. Instruments of international water law, among them notably conventions and soft law developed on that basis - which promote equitable and reasonable use of transboundary waters and prevention of transboundary impact - can serve as tools for water diplomacy. The obligation to establish agreements on shared waters and joint bodies to govern them has contributed to gathering important experience, and some of this has been synthesized into the Principles for Effective Joint Bodies which were adopted by the Meeting of the Parties to the UNECE Water Convention in 2015. The Principles are intended as a resource to increase the effectiveness of joint bodies in transboundary water cooperation.