Abstract
There is a wide range of environmental threats to the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) in Central Asia: desertification, the intensive use of insecticides and fertilizers harmful to the environment, global warming, nuclear pollution risks—uranium waste dumps—or pollution coming from extractive or military industrial complexes. Most of these threats are of a transnational nature and are the cause or consequence of water resource management models. In this chapter, the author analyzes the conflicts, risks and vulnerabilities in the region related to the security environment and water resources, as well as the cooperative response to the environmental problems by international organizations—the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OTCS), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and NATO-sponsored programs—in terms of security policies.
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Notes
- 1.
Article 12 of The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR recognizes the right to the “enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”. The steps to be taken by Parties towards the realization of this right shall include, inter alia, “the improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene” (Article 12.2 (b)).
- 2.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 22nd Sess., General Comment 14, 14, 36, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (11 August 2000).
- 3.
John Knox is the first independent expert on human rights and the environment. He began working on the mandate on 1 August 2012. OHCHR. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Environment/IEEnvironment/Pages/IEenvironmentIndex.aspx.
- 4.
Zaharchenko, Tatiana R.: Environmental Policy in the Soviet Union. (UCDAVIS. University of California). http://environs.law.ucdavis.edu/volumes/14/1/articles/zaharchenko.pdf.
- 5.
EJF (2012): The true costs of cotton: cotton production and water insecurity. Environmental Justice Foundation, London.
- 6.
Temperature rise development (it will continue in years to come): Uzbekistan (1950–2005): 0.290C; Kazakhstan (1936–2005): 0.260C; Turkmenistan (1961–1995): 0.180C; Tajikistan (1940–2005): 0.100C; Kyrgyzstan (1883–2005): 0.080C.
- 7.
Eurasian Development Bank. Executive Board of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. Regional Center of Hydrogeology. Impact of Climate Change to Water Resources in Central Asia. (Consolidated Report) http://www.cawater-info.net/library/eng/ifas/impact_climate_change_en.pdf.
- 8.
Regional Water Intelligence Report. Central Asia Baseline Report. By: Jakob Granit, Anders Jägerskog. Rebecca Löfgren, Andy Bullock, George de Gooijer, Stuart Pettigrew and Andreas Lindström. Stockholm, March 2010. http://www.watergovernance.org/documents/WGF/Reports/Paper-15_RWIR_Aral_Sea.pdf, p. 8.
- 9.
Abdulkasimov, H. P., Alibekova, A. V. and Vakhabov, A. V. (2003): Desertification problems in Central Asia and its regional strategic development. Abstracts, NATO Advanced Research Workshop. Samarkand, 11–14 June. p. 4. (In Russian). Water-related Problems of Central Asia: Some Results of the (GIWA) International Water. Assessment programme Igor Vasilievich Severskly. http://www.unep.org/dewa/giwa/publications/articles/ambio/article_7.pdf pp. 7–8.
- 10.
State Committee for Land Management of the Republic of Tajikistan. Resume National Report or the Republic of Tajikistan to Combat Desertification. Dushanbe—2006. www.cawater-info.net/library/eng/tj/st_land_com.pdf.Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the obligations under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. 2009. http://www.pops.int/documents/implementationf.UNCCD. Implementation in Turkmenistan. National Report of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the Implementation to Combat Desertification. 2010 (CCD). www.unccd.int/…/reports/…/national/…/turkmenistan-summary-eng.pdf. The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Third National Report of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Astana, 2006. www.cbd.int/doc/world/kz/kz-nr-03-en.pdf.
- 11.
WNN | World Nuclear News. EBRD launches uranium mining legacy fund. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/UF-EBRD-launches-uranium-mining-legacy-fund-1806157.html.
- 12.
UNECE. Environmental Policy Under Scrutiny in Kyrgyzstan. A backlash surrounding a gold mine is placing the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development under scrutiny. By Ryskeldi Satke and Franco Galdini. http://aarhusclearinghouse.unece.org/news/1000828/?year=2014. EBRD’s November 17, 2014.
- 13.
Anders Aslund, Martha Brill Olcott, Sherman W. Garnett. Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (February 2000).
- 14.
Data from Ronald B. Mitchell. 2002–2015. International Environmental Agreements Database Project (Version 2014.3). Available at: http://iea.uoregon.edu/. Date accessed: 1 September 2015.
- 15.
Evangelista, M. (1986): “The New Soviet Approach to Security”. World Policy Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 561–599. Published by: The MIT Press and the World Policy Institute. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40209031. Accessed: 20 March 2011 20:41.
- 16.
By Wu Jiao and Li Xiaokun (China Daily). Updated: 2010-06-12 08:22 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-06/12/content_9968565.htm.
- 17.
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 19, Issue 1, Ver. III (Jan. 2014), pp. 91–94. e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org. p. 91.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
OSCE Yearbook 2009. Yearbook on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg /IFSH (ed.), p. 348.
- 20.
NATO strategic concept. http://www.nato.int/lisbon2010/strategic-concept-2010-eng.pdf. (Part III).
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Pérez Martín, M.Á. (2017). Environmental Security, Water Resources and International Security Organizations. In: Security and Human Right to Water in Central Asia. Security, Development and Human Rights in East Asia. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54005-8_3
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