The Human Right to Water traces the issue of the right to water through a number of international legal instruments, particularly General Comment No. 15 which recognizes such a right. It analyzes the international legal regime for human rights, and argues that the nexus between development, water and human rights is well established therein. Although the central theme of the Study is General Comment No. 15 issued by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2002 which explicitly recognizes a human right to water, the Study argues that the Comment supports the idea that there is an incipient right to water emerging in international law today. This right is buttressed by a large number of soft law instruments, emerging customary international law, as well as an increasing number of domestic law instruments.

The authors are recognized experts in their fields. Salman M. A. Salman is Lead Counsel in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development and International Law Group (ESSD and International Law) of the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency. He is the Bank's focal person on water law, and has published extensively in this field. Siobhan McInerney-Lankford is counselor to ESSD and International Law Group. She specializes in human rights law, and has written widely in this area.