Top UN Leader Calls for Creation of the Right to Water

United Nations General Assembly President, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, called on countries to establish the right to water for their people on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This historic call is being met with praise from Maude Barlow, a leading water rights advocate and expert.

"We should recognize that the right to water is a human right, and water cannot therefore be treated as a commodity that is bought and sold," said President d'Escoto Brockmann in his speech. "The right to water should unite us in building a new model of sustainable human development."

"President d'Ecoto Brockmann's endorsement of water as a human right is a call to action," says Maude Barlow, National Board Chair of Food & Water Watch and newly appointed Senior Advisor on Water Issues to President d'Escoto Brockmann. "This is a wonderful opportunity to advance a more democratic and transparent method of policy making around water at the global level than now exists. Without water there is no life, water is a public good, and a human right."...