Lunch Discussion "The Protection of Water Infrastructure in Relation to Armed Conflicts"
In its 2017 report “A Matter of Survival”, the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace, co-convened by fifteen countries, has underlined the dire consequences of armed conflicts on water infrastructure. Following its recommendations on strengthening the respect for and implementation of international humanitarian law in relation to water, the Geneva Water Hub’s Platform for International Water Law, hosted at the University of Geneva, has taken the initiative, with other academic partners, international and non-governmental organisations, to draw a List of Principles protecting water infrastructure during and after armed conflicts. Through the presentation of the List of Principles, the lunch discussion aims at exploring ways on how this document may be used by practitioners working in the humanitarian and development fields and at fostering the knowledge on the role of water infrastructure reconstruction in the contexts of fragility, conflicts and violence.
Chair
Mrs Sarah Michael
Manager, Fragility, Conflict, Violence Global Themes Department.
Speakers
Mr Danilo Türk
Former President of Slovenia and Geneva Water Hub Lead Political Advisor
Danilo Türk is a Slovenian diplomat, professor of international law, human rights expert, and political figure who served as President of Slovenia from 2007 to 2012. He was the first Slovene ambassador to the United Nations, from 1992 to 2000, and was the UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs from 2000 to 2005. He is a visiting professor of international law at Columbia University in New York City, a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, and non-resident senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He is the founder of the Danilo Türk Foundation, devoted mostly to the rehabilitation of child victims of armed conflict. He was also Chair of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace between 2015 and 2017.
Mrs Mara Tignino
Reader at the Faculty of Law and Coordinator of the Platform for International Water Law at the University of Geneva and reader at the Geneva Water Hub, she holds a Ph.D. in international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She was a Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University Law School.
Discussants
Mrs Alexandra Campbell-Ferrari
Executive Director of the Center for Water Security and Cooperation, she received her J.D. from The George Washington University, and has studied, researched and taught in the area of water law. She was a Research Scholar in Spain, focusing on EU and Spanish water law. She is also a member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, a U.S. expert body that advises on drinking water issues across the United States.
Mr Anders Jagerskog
Senior Water Resources Management Specialist, World Bank
Mr Timothy Grieve
Senior Advisor, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Section, Programme Division, UNICEF