On 25 February 2014, Côte d’Ivoire became the 34th Party to the 1997 UN Convention on the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses. One more, and the Convention will reach the 35 members required for it to go into force.
Ariella D’Andrea is a natural resources lawyer specializing in fisheries, aquaculture and water resources law and is currently working with the Pacific Community-SPC. She has been working as legal expert on development projects since 2002, mainly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) but also with other organizations such as the European Union and the World Bank. She has served as Legal Officer in charge of an FAO regional project on water legislation in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) from 2009 to 2011.
Over the years, Ms D’Andrea’s expertise has focused on the review and drafting of natural resources legislation, institutional arrangements, legal publications and country studies, including on water law and governance, water users’ associations and irrigation management transfer, customary fisheries and water resources management and, more recently, ocean and river rights. As a member of AIDA’s Executive Council, notably, Ms D’Andrea initiated and coordinated the development of an online training course on the ‘greening’ of water law, that is now available through the United Nations InforMEA learning platform.
Admitted to the Italian Bar, Ms D’Andrea holds a Law degree (laurea magistrale) and a Master’s degree in communication science (master di II livello) from La Sapienza University of Rome. She is fluent in four languages (English, French, Italian and Spanish), which has allowed her to visit over 70 countries worldwide to carry out legal assistance missions or participate in international conferences and meetings on freshwater and aquatic resources law.
I value AIDA as an institution and would like to contribute more in the coming years to its vitality and visibility. I have participated (as a presenter) at two World Water Congress gatherings (in Recife, Brasil and Edinburgh, Scotland) in which AIDA organized the law track panels. I also contributed a chapter to The Greening of Water Law Handbook that AIDA produced for the United Nations Environment Programme.
Over the past decade, much of my scholarship (articles and books) has focused on International Water Law subjects (including my 2021 book Riverflow: The Right to Keep Water Instream published by Cambridge University Press) and I have consulted with water/fisheries law projects with colleagues in Japan and Chile. I also have experience organizing workshops, symposiums and panels and editing publications which appear to be major components of the Projects Chair position. International Water Law issues that are of particular interest to me include: the status of instream flow and instream uses of water, the sharing and regulation of transboundary groundwater, and further elaboration of what constitutes “vital human needs” in regard to water. As AIDA Projects Chair, I look forward to the opportunities to expand and improve the application of International Water Law to these concerns and questions.
Gabriel Eckstein is Professor of Law and Director of the Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Systems Law program at Texas A&M University where he focuses his research and teaching on water, natural resources, and environmental law and policy issues at the local, national, and international levels.
At Texas A&M University, he also serves on the Graduate Faculty for the Water Management & Hydrological Science program; Associated Professor with the Bush School of Government and Public Service; Faculty Fellow with the Center for Health Systems & Design, College of Architecture; and Affiliated Faculty with the Energy Institute.
Eckstein regularly advises UN agencies, national and sub-national governments, NGOs, and other groups on international and US water and environmental issues and has represented nations before the International Court of Justice. He previously served as Treasurer and then President of the International Water Resources Association, and currently serves as Associate Editor for the book series Brill Research Perspectives: International Water Law, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Water Law.
Eckstein holds an LL.M. in International Environmental Law, a Juris Doctor in Law, an M.S. in International Affairs, and a B.A. in Geology.
Former Chairman, International Association for Water Law (AIDA)
Chair, Water and Wetlands Specialist Group, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL)
Stefano Burchi is an expert in comparative and international freshwater law. He holds law degrees from La Sapienza University of Rome and from Harvard Law School, and a M.Sc. from the University of Michigan. He has made a career as water law specialist in the Development Law Service of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Since retiring from FAO in 2008, Mr. Burchi has taken up a variety of water law consultancies, and has also chaired the International Association for Water Law (AIDA). He currently chairs the Water and Wetlands Law Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL). He is the author of numerous published articles and publications on the law of freshwater resources, domestic and transboundary.
Lilian del Castillo-Laborde is a lawyer and PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she chairs courses on International Jurisdictions, Jurisdictional Immunities, Environment and Human Rights, among others. She is also counselor at the Argentine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in shared natural resources matters.
She recently published the books Water Fora, From Mar del Plata to Istambul (in Spanish) and The Río de la Plata and its Maritime Front Legal Regime. Among her latest articles, she published “Environmental awareness for Arctic and Antarctic regions,” “La Plata Basin” and “Case-law on International Watercourses.”
She is a member of the International Law Association, the American Society of International Law, the International Water Resources Association, the Argentine Council for Foreign Relations, and other academic institutions.
Affiliation: IWA, AIDA, IWRA
François Touchais is a French environmental lawyer born in 1977. He holds 20 years of experience. He was full-time employed by the International Office for Water during 10 years and did consultancies for Umweltbundesamt, UNECE, UNICEF, UNDP, AFD, GIZ. He is currently employed by Hydroconseil as Senior legal expert. He specialized in IWRM, floods and drought risk management, drinking water supply and sanitation.
Academics:
He is a fluent trilingual speaker–French, English and Spanish–and worked in various regions such as West Africa, North Africa, Middle-East, Central Asia, Caucasus, Balkans, South East Asia and Oceania.
Dr. Marcella Nanni is an international expert in water law and administration and related disciplines. To date, she has provided expert advice in this field to a number of governments and international river basin institutions within the framework of projects financed by international organizations such as the FAO and the European Union, and by bilateral donors. This advice has covered the development of draft water legislation and international agreements, the restructuring of water resources management institutions, water law implementation requirements and the formulation and conduct of capacity-building programmes, amongst other things.
In 2007 she produced the second edition, revised and updated, of major textbook Principles of Water Law and Administration, National and International, by Dante A. Caponera (1921-2003), which was first published in 1992 by Balkema, Rotterdam. She is the author, or co-author, of a number of articles in law and other journals.
Water Law Consultant Dr. Elena Quadri is a national of Italy. She holds a Law Degree from Perugia University, and a PhD in Cooperation for Peace and Development, II level Master in Environmental Law, from the National Research Council, in Rome.
She has been a Research Associate for a long period at the Water Resources Research and Documentation Center (WARREDOC), University for Foreigners of Perugia (Italy), where she carried out teaching and research activities, with a focus on the management and protection of transboundary surface and groundwater resources, including relevant publications both in Italy and abroad, and participation as a speaker at various international congresses. She is currently involved in research projects.
Dr. Quadri has been a Regular Member of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and of the International Association for Water Law (AIDA) for several years.