Adopted as the declaration in Jurist Meeting of the People’ Water Forum Indonesia (PWF Indonesia), 22 July 2025, with annex
We, jurist,
working with, serving and together with rural and traditional communities, rural women, indigenous communities, traditional nomadic communities living in coastal and island marine eocystem, traditional communities living in forest and ecosytem area;
working with, serving and together with urban communities pursuing public service of the water,
gathered in the Jurist Meeting of the People’s Water Forum Indonesia (PWF Indonesia), in 22 July 2025, in online setting, with the presence of the UN Special Rapporteur to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Hon. Prof. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo,
declared the Self Defense on the Right to Water,
Reaffirming the importance of the observance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of theUnited Nations for the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons in all countries of the world,
Reaffirming also the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights as basic elements of international efforts to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the importance of other human rights instruments adopted within the United Nations system, as well as those at the regional level,
Stressing that the fundamental implementation and governance on the right to water as stated in the United Nations General Comment no. 15 of International Covenant of the Economic Social and Cultural Rights on right to water.
Acknowledging the important role of UN Special Rapportenur on Right to Water and international implementation and governance of right to life in the right to water towards effective elimination of all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples and individuals;
Reiterating that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are universal, indivisible, interdependentand interrelated and should be promoted and implemented in a fair and equitable manner, without prejudice tothe implementation of each of those rights and freedoms.
Declares
Principle 1
Communities are facing with increased expulsion of inhumane interest often masking the expulsion by greater good objective. Communities who are facing those are rural communities, rural women, indigenous communities, traditional nomadic communities living in coastal and island marine eocystem, traditional communities living in forest and ecosytem area, and urban communities pursuing public service of the water
Principle 2
Self defence is called by communities when they are persecuted against and fall victims to violent expulsion of inhumane interests. This declaration also shall mount to repudiation by the communities against illegal and unjustified claim against communities
Principle 3
Self-defense is all about remembering. The right to life of the communities is both what communities physically suffer to and how they remember the suffering. Self defense is on putting and immersing the memory into legal institution.
Principle 4
Self defense should involve “what, then, community have to use for”. Either by limited and small-scale response to violence or as an organised one aiming for the institutionalisation and upholding the universality of norm of self-defense.
Any available means in defence of the right to life of the comunities where water is fundamental part of those, short of violence, against physical violence, inhuman detention, corruptive treatment should be considered and justified.
Principle 5
Self defence as it is based on civil and political rights should involve right to organisation and access to citizenship.
Principle 6
Everyday survival is self defense. Information, counter-information, mobility, among other, are tools of survival
Principle 7
Self defense shall take into account both individual and collective situation of the rights holders.
Principle 6
Self-defense is arising from the universality of the right to water, and hence a lifelong pursuit, not limited by statute of limitation, nor by territorial boundaries
Principle 7
Governance and administration of justice, while it could be limited, are the important space for the institutionalisation of self defense.
Principle 8
When it involve different jurisdiction, a joint jurisdiction should come into consideration which and where the self defence aim to.
Indonesia, 22 July 2025
Convenor,
KRuHA (Koalisi Rakyat untuk Keadilan Air/ People’s Coalition for the Right to Water)
Solidaritas Perempuan (Solidaritas Perempuan/Women Solidarity for Human Rights)
LBH Semarang (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Semarang, Legal Foundation, Semarang Branch)
IGJ (Indonesia For Global Justice)
Sembada Bersama Indonesia
Kontras (Komisi Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan/ Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence)
Apintlaw (Associated Program for International Law)
Signatories,
- KRuHA (Koalisi Rakyat untuk Keadilan Air/ People’s Coalition on the Right to Water)
- Solidaritas Perempuan (Solidaritas Perempuan/Women Solidarity for Human Rights)
- LBH Semarang (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Semarang, Legal Foundation, Semarang Branch)
- IGJ (Indonesia For Global Justice)
- Sembada Bersama Indonesia
- Kontras (Komisi Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan/ Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence)
- Apintlaw (Associated Program for International Law)
- Laskar Hijau Community
- Pasraman Air Community
- I Ni Timpal Kopi Community
- The Institute for Ecosoc Rights
- Forum Lenteng (Jakarta)
- Forum Tamansari Bersatu
- Lingkar Keadilan Ruang
- Forum Jampiiklim
- Perpustakaan Rakyat
- Sajogyo Institute
- Serikat Nelayan Indonesia (SNI)
- Arami Kasih (Curator)
- Prathiwi Widyatmi Putri (Independent Researcher)
- Eva Wishanti (Independent Researcher)
- Wijanto Hadipuro (Independent Researcher)
- Agung Wardana (Faculty of Law, Gajah Mada University)
- Hotmauli Sidabalok (Master of Environment and Urban Studies, Soegijapranata Catholic University)
- Yesaya Sandang (Master of Development Studies, Satya Wacana Christian University)
- Sebrian Beselly (Independent Peneliti)
(signatories are both organisation and individual)
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Annex
Right to Water as self-defense
PWF Indonesia / People’ Water Forum Indonesia
Jurist Meeting, 22 July 2025
A. Executive Summary
The Right to Water is well enshrined in international norm in ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights), in the UN ESCR General Comment no. 15 on right to water, in the special procedure of the UN Human Rights Council especially of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and other special procedures including on food, housing, environment, toxic. Increasingly, right to water is understood and applied not only as public provision but also as self defense of communities and various individuals and groups in facing the challenge of commercialisation, financialisation, extractivism of natural resources and ecosystem where water is fundamental part of. The international and national norm is catching up with this development. This needs further enumeration on the right to water as international norm.
The meeting would gather jurists to contribute to the process of the enumeration of right to water as self-defense.
B. Key question
While in terms of govenance and international norm, inquiry, diligence, FPIC (free prior informed consent), advocacy, and others obligate a prompt protection of rights holder, there is normative gap in terms of “targeted” and “violence by default”.
“Targeted” would imply a situation where there is repeated violence so much so that its coming. The victims and affected communities are repeatedly and deliberately targeted by alleged perpetrator. (In criminal law, this could mount a certain degree of sentence to prevent the situation repeated).
“Violence by default” would imply a situation where human rights violence is arising from deliberate action (e.g. confiscation of an ecosystem area), and only later, then, this is justified by government or by law enforcement (e.g. justification of “greater good” or justification of “preventing further problem”). The victims and affected communities, while they predicted would happened in a such situation early on, are forced to accept “default”. Then, some kind of “solution” will be decided by government or by law enforcement. In some cases, “solution” would mean criminalisation against some individuals from victims and affected communities.
In such situations, self-defence would be understood rigorously. This is not a reason for an unwarranted violence, but there should be normative space for affected communities to defend themselves in any way they can thus far.
How we should understand and formulate a norm of self defense against the “targeted” and “violence by default” background and for human rights reason.
C. Right to water as self-defense, where it stands?
At present, the international norm on right to water is mostly based on the fundamental establishment of the rights, i.e. recognition and protection of physical integrity of individual human life. But, this has been challenged by the fact that right to water cannot be severed from matters of tenure, culture, community, climate change which mostly are collective, historical and ecosystem-based. Hence, the right to water has been applied as collective rights without overriding the foundation of individual physical integrity.
With the framework of “respect-protect-fullfil”, right to water is realised in progression. The minimum requirement or condition as the basis is set, then the progression is developed. The minimum requirement or condition must be applied “right here, right now” since it is the human life itself which cannot live without water. The progression will condition a framework of governance, equity in decision-making, and dedication of resources. Time and formation curve will be in the assumption.
However, as commercialisation of ecosystem and natural resources taking place in a very rapid pace, in a very expansive way, in a complexity (especially on financing), so much so that the ecosystem and natural resources themselves cannot cope with this rapid process. Individual, groups and communities living in different ecosystem and natural resources lost their ability to safeguard their well being and their physical integrity. in time and in instance.
In other situation, water is manipulated as a tool of repression both in time of armed conflict and in time where open warfare is absent. Water is abused for the purpose of accumulation of power by certain individual or group. The ecosystem and natural resources have been extracted for wealth and power manipulation. This creates present repression and some outrights violence against individual, groups, and communities especially against those who are living in the area or the line of ecosystem and natural resources.
Communities, especially, in coping with the present forms of commercialisation and extractivism tried to find a peaceful way to defend the right to water in forms of defending their physical integrity and their right historical and communal life in regard of water. This did not always meet reality where represssion and violence are often so sophisticated and ferocious in their impact.
The term of “self-defence” in international norm is a well established norm especially as ius cogens where human dignity demand a necessary level respect of or non-trespasses against physical integrity. Human as individual or as group has a right to defend themselves whenever their physical integrity overrode by others. UN Charter and customary laws and mechanism established the obligation of the state to perform their right to defend themselves on behalf of their citizen (“we the people” principle). In extreme cases, ius cogens is invoked. This is where communities find a way to defend themselves.
In terms of right to water, commercialisation and extractivism of ecosystem and natural resources cause injury and deprivation against communities. This made communities have no choice but to defend themselves. This defence also could take place when the state (of their origin or domicile) failed to provide recognition and protection. Especially in extreme cases where protracted violence befell against communities, certain kind of self defense would be the only choice.
Forms of self-defense on the right to water are already in application in different ways and in different localities. Those should be enumerated (more) into international norm in accordance to human rights principles especially on right to life in the framework of right to water.
D. Jurist Meeting
The Jurist Meeting will be organised for the process of enumerating the right to water as self-defense. The jurist meetihg will be organised as the contribution to enumeration of self defence in the right to water. Jurist may come from their different experience on matter of right to water as self-defense, among other (non-exhaustive):
- Jurists employing existing legal domestic framework for self-defense of communities;
- Jurists collaborating with communities in public advocacy (with different forms of activities, fields and modalities)
- Feminist jurists and organisation working for the women rights in right to water;
- Human rights defenders including those in defending environment where communities are living in;
- Academia working in researchs on right to water
E. Questions (non-exhaustive)
- What kind of (written) declaration by communities if and when they exercise self-defense on the matter?
- What kind of adjudication accepted or justified certain kind of self-defense by communities and individual and groups on responding to extractivism of ecosystem and natural resources?
- Are there any researchs compiling or taking consideration of self-defense in the right to water?
- Are there any submission to the international fora and mechanism on self-defense on right to water?
- Do jurists, at this stage, develop a framework ? In what normative content, and how?
F. Previous similar processes
- Notable processes in this matter is the development of Maastrich Guidelines and Limburg Principles on ESC Rights. These processes started as communities and jurists collaboration, then, the CESCR (the Committee on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights) reissued as the committee’s document in E/C.12/2000/13
- The processes of both UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and UNDROP (United Nations Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas) which started as communities self-defense and advocacy, then also with collaboration with acedemia, various groups, and jurists, then enshrined as international norm.
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Term of reference prepared by Henry Thomas Simarmata (Apintlaw/Associated Program for International Law) and Muhammad Reza Sahib (KRuHA, People’s Coalition for Right to Water)