Universalizing the Right to Water in Brazil: Liberalization, Regulation and Public Policies in Human Rights

Abstract

This paper proposes a very important discussion: Can trade policy help national governments to realize universal human rights? Specifically, in the context of progressively broader multilateral trade negotiations, how well can governments deal with international pressures for liberalization, and, at the same time, preserve its regulatory freedom and autonomy, in order to implement social policies directed to the realization of a developing country nationals’ human rights? To answer this question, we chose to work with one of the most basic human rights: the right to water. The right to water is fundamental in many dimensions. Just to remember four of them, we can mention (i) the humanitarian and human dignity dimensions, (ii) the economic dimension, (iii) the social dimension, and (iv) the sanitary dimension. In the first place, in what concerns the humanitarian and human dignity dimension, granting the right to water implies creating conditions for citizens to access a natural resource that is essential to their own survival. In the second place, in what refers to the economic development dimension, water is a scarce good, which demands heavy investments in order to be realized. Moreover, it involves building physical infrastructure, sewage systems, water treatment centrals, distribution networks, interconnecting pipes’ networks – all activities related to an intense national effort in terms of mobilizing huge sums of capital, and human resources. In third place, the access to water, viewed from its social dimension, represents a factor of social inclusion, given that the universalization of the supply of clean water has effects over social cohesion and equality amongst the members of a community. In the fourth place, from a sanitary perspective, the right to water is strictly related to public policies in the health sector – reduction of diseases related to extreme poverty, contamination and children mortality. Dirty water is a dissemination vector for endemic, epidemic and parasite diseases – decontamination implies, thus, increased life expectancy, mainly in poor countries. The paper highlights the debate about how to put in practice effective, broad and inclusive policies involving the universalization of the right to water and their relationship with international trade policies. To this end, it studies the case of Brazil. In this sense, regulation, liberalization, trade openness, preservation of the State’ s regulatory capacity, attraction of foreign investments and the choices and needs of Brazilian society are the important variables to be considered.