At its fourteenth meeting, in March 2017, the Compliance Committee of the UN-ECE Protocol on Water and Health elected Professor Jorge E. Viñuales, Harold Samuel Chair of Law and Environmental Policy and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, as its Chairman for the next triennium.
The Protocol was signed in 1999 by thirty-six States of the pan-European region with the aim to ensure access to water and sanitation through the improvement of water management and the prevention, control and reduction of water-related disease. The Protocol adopts a hybrid structure combining inter-State obligations with provisions relating to access to water.
The Compliance Committee was established by the Meeting of the Parties in order to review compliance with State obligations under the Protocol. It consists of nine independent experts, appointed by the Meeting of the Parties on the proposal of one Member State, and acting on a pro bono basis. The Committee can receive submissions from Member States, referrals from the Secretariat or communications from the public relating to cases of potential non-compliance with the obligations of the Protocol.