Shelton, Dinah --- "Water rights of indigenous peoples and local communities" [2013] ELECD 291; in Boisson de Chazournes, Laurence; Leb, Christina; Tignino, Mara (eds), "International Law and Freshwater" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 69

Book Title: International Law and Freshwater

Editor(s): Boisson de Chazournes, Laurence; Leb, Christina; Tignino, Mara

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781005088

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Water rights of indigenous peoples and local communities

Author(s): Shelton, Dinah

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

The lack of access to water and water pollution occur disproportionately in indigenous and rural communities throughout the world, and produce their most frequent and serious impacts on the vulnerable members of these communities: women, children, aged, and infirm. These problems reflect the distribution of power within states, where marginalization keeps indigenous peoples and rural communities at the edges of society economically, politically and socially. In this context, the immediate water crises being experienced by indigenous and local communities stem from a variety of sources, as illustrated by some recent cases in the Inter- American human rights system: The Sawhoyamaxa and Yakye Axa live along the margins of an east-west highway that traverses the Chaco in Paraguay. These indigenous communities have been dispossessed from their traditional lands and denied access to the resources thereon, which have for millennia provided the means for their subsistence. They have no land for crops or hunting, and no access to a safe water supply. They are fenced out of their own territories and must depend on the government for a supply of food and water, pending a resolution of their land claims. The deprivation of land is thus also a deprivation of traditional water sources. The Yakye Axa have one latrine for over 500 people, many of whom must cross the highway to reach it.