- The Hon. Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR, President of GCI

- The Hon. Ingvar Gösta Carlsson, former Prime Minister of Sweden

- The Hon. Sir Ketumile Masire, former President of Botswana

- The Hon. Fidel V. Ramos, former President of the Philippines

The Green Cross team consists of Dr. Bertrand Charrier, Executive Director of GCI, Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, International Environmental Law expert from the University of Geneva, and Fiona Curtin, GCI Water Project Manager. The preliminary findings of the study were presented at the 9th Stockholm Water Symposium, 9 - 12 August 1999. The final results of the investigation were presented at the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague in March 2000.

The questions which have been put to the Panel Members are:

• What are the principles that should regulate the use of shared water? How do we obtain a lasting and broad-based consensus on such issues from sovereign governments?
• Can such a set of principles be codified in a meaningful, operational, sense? What form should such a codification take?
• Is there a need for inter-governmental mechanisms specifically for dealing with potential environmental conflicts? For promoting inter-governmental cooperation?
• How can we link these mechanisms with the issue of national sovereignty, the basic building block of the current world order and the keystone of international legal agreements?

The need to anticipate conflicts over shared water resources and to find international, legal and political mechanisms to assist in resolving them is becoming urgent. Although armed, inter-state conflicts over water are rare, it must be remembered that these are not the only types of conflicts facing societies in regions of increasing water stress. Internal conflicts between different ethnic groups, regions, users and even small communities can and do arise over water. Both types of dispute are relevant to the emotive question of national sovereignty, which has both inter-state and domestic manifestations. The question of who has the right, or entitlement, to how much water for what and when can be asked at the level of riparian states and between different groups of people sharing a pump or stream. For billions of people the daily source of drinking water is an international watercourse, and these same people and the natural environment which sustains them should be the prime consideration in any debate on the question of who has sovereignty over such waters. This is clearly a matter which goes well beyond international law to considerations of social security, human rights, political and public will, minorities, gender, culture and the environment, and calls for a change in the way we value and treat water.

It is dangerous to be too dismissive over the risks of future inter-state conflict over shared waters. If we continue with our current behaviour pattern, at least 60 countries will face severe water stress within the next 25 years. Unless a comprehensive set of principles on how to share this precious resource is developed now, certain states may be forced to resort to desperate measures to secure enough water for their survival. An excellent start would be the adoption of good water laws and priorities at the national level, but states who face a thirsty future need also to look to their neighbours and develop agreements on protecting and fairly apportioning common watercourses and jointly developing ways to use their water more efficiently in order to pre-empt the crisis. A spirit of solidarity is required between up-stream and down-stream states, as well as the development of cross-border systems of compensation and trade-offs, whether to deal with problems of scarcity, flooding or pollution. The ratification of the UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses would be a gesture of good will on the part of states, and could serve to remove the misplaced feelings of suspicion and insecurity which hinder the establishment of regional, basin level agreements. This should be seen as creating a system of effective interdependence rather than restricted sovereignty.

The Members of the Sovereignty Panel are therefore focusing their recommendations on principles for the implementation of regional, integrated management of international waters, and on the need for international mechanisms for water conflict prevention and resolution. The possibility of establishing an independent international Corps of conflict mediators is also being investigated. Regions of potential water conflict have been identified and the possible roots of conflicts carefully analysed in order to determine preventive strategies.

Green Cross International and the members of the Sovereignty Panel will continue to promote and work towards these goals in the context of the World Water Vision and Global Water Partnership's Framework for Action activities and other international initiatives. We hope in this way to contribute towards the realisation of the Vision of a world in which there is: Water for All; Water for the Future; Water for Peace and Peace for Water.

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