Providing water law expertise across the globe

Representatives from the University's International Water Law Research Institute (IWLRI) have been providing expertise in the area of water law and natural resources at meetings with leaders from across the globe.

Director of IWLRI Dr Pat Wouters advised the United Nations at a meeting convened by an international group of water experts at UNESCO, Paris. Pat also put forward a draft Resolution, which was widely supported and is expected to conclude successfully with Dundee becoming the first international UNESCO Centre on Water Law, Policy and Science.

Dr Alistair RieuClarke and Andrew Allan, also of the IWLRI, are just back from Geneva, where they presented their preliminary legal experts report on the rules relating to flooding and droughts. The IWLRI was requested by the UN to provide expertise in the field of water law on this topic - every week a new locality suffers the adverse impact of flooding or droughts.

Pat also represented the IWLRI and the Universities Partnership on Transboundary Waters at an international meeting in the Netherlands. The meeting was jointly convened by UNESCO and the World Water Council to move forward with the 'Water for Peace' UN initiative launched at the Kyoto World Water Forum. The IWLRI was a founding member of this initiative through its activities with the Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters.

As part of the Water for Peace initiative by IWLRI, Pat was the keynote speaker at the 2nd Israeli/Palestinian Water for Life Conference. She said, "The meeting conveyed a real sense of solidarity among the leading water resource experts in the region and demonstrated how water can be a catalyst for peace."