A/HRC/57/48 I. Introduction 1. After 46 years, a second United Nations Water Conference took place in March 2023.1 Although, in his remarks at the closing of the Conference, the President of the General Assembly briefly referenced the human rights to water and sanitation, the Conference itself lacked a human rights-based approach.2 Instead, the entire focus was on the potential impacts of climate change on water-dependent productive activities. In addition, the preparatory documents for the 2024 Summit of the Future overlooked the global water crisis, the human right to water, and the social and economic impacts of climate change, not giving sufficient attention to adopting a human rights-based approach to managing essential resources for the future. 2. However, it was encouraging that, in a resolution adopted in 2023, 3 the General Assembly decided to convene Water Conferences in 2026 and 2028 and requested the Secretary-General to prepare a United Nations system-wide water and sanitation strategy,4 strengthening the United Nations leadership in water governance. 3. The Special Rapporteur argues that, in implementing the strategy, it is crucial to adopt a sustainable, human rights-based approach to water management, with water being understood as a common good rather than a commodity or simply a productive input. 4. Adopting such an approach implies addressing sustainability challenges in economic water uses like irrigation, hydroelectric production, industry and mining, managing all water uses from an integrated approach, prioritizing human rights dependent on water and ensuring no one is left behind. II. Values at stake in water management 5. The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote that: “Every fool confuses value and price.” That idea is similar to that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived 2,300 years ago. Aristotle distinguished between economics and chrematistics, 5 two concepts often confused today. Chrematistics refers to managing money and market-valued goods, while economics refers to managing household goods. The Special Rapporteur understands that modern economics and legal approaches, such as ecological economics,6 which considers Aristotle’s wise conceptual distinction by addressing the concept of natural patrimony, could apply these concepts to the entire planet instead of the household. A. Water functions and values 6. Water, like other renewable natural goods, has multiple functions and values. However, if we compare those functions and values with those derived from the use of timber, for example, important differences emerge. 7. Water management and timber management require preserving the sustainability of aquatic and forest ecosystems: forests cannot be managed as timber stores and rivers cannot be managed as H2O channels but as living ecosystems, guaranteeing their sustainability. 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 Officially known as the United Nations Conference on the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028. President of the General Assembly, closing remarks at the United Nations Water Conference, 24 March 2023, available at https://www.un.org/pga/77/2023/03/24/pga-remarks-to-the-closing-ofthe-2023-un-water-conference. General Assembly resolution 77/334. See https://www.unwater.org/publications/united-nations-system-wide-strategy-water-and-sanitation. Gloria Vivenza, “A re-assessment of Aristotle’s economic thought”, History of Economics Review, vol. 63, No. 1 (2016), pp. 68–71. H. Neo, “Resource and environmental economics”, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Rob Kitchin and Nigel Thrift, eds. (Elsevier, 2009), available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/ecological-economics. GE.24-13383