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common denominators in the search for solutions. The Panel is grateful to the Governments
of Switzerland, Senegal, Costa Rica and Jordan, as well as to the University for Peace in
San Jose and the Royal Scientific Society in Amman for their hospitality and substantive
assistance to its work.

In addition to the core analytical work and the formulation of recommendations, the Panel
members wished to emphasize the cultural dimensions of the understanding of water as
an instrument of peace. Water has inspired artists from the early times of all the world’s
civilizations. The Panel wished to pay tribute to this artistic aspect of water and, at the same
time, take advantage of the musical expression of the message of water as a factor of peace.
This is why, at each of the four meetings, a composer from the region where the meeting was
held, composed a movement of the Symphony for Water and Peace. This work was completed
in parallel to the Panel’s own activities. We are convinced that the Symphony will add a strong
message of water as an instrument of peace, in addition to our report.

The Panel also took advantage of expert consultations, organized in addition to our own
meetings. Eight think tank roundtable discussions were organized in Geneva. Individual
consultations were held with over one hundred experts and policy makers from all parts of the
world on diverse occasions during the last two years. Several Panel members also prepared
working papers to elucidate various substantive issues discussed in Panel meetings.
On 22 November 2016 the UN Security Council conducted, at the initiative of its President at
the time, Senegal, the first ever thematic debate on water, security and peace. I was asked
to brief the Security Council about the Panel’s work. The subsequent discussion, in which
69 UN Member States, including all fifteen members of the Security Council, participated,
showed a growing sense of urgency on the issues of water and peace, and readiness to
continue the discussion with a view to developing adequate responses. Several Council
members expressed interest in a discussion of the report, once it is launched and presented
to the UN.

This interaction with a wide variety of experts and policy makers, as well as representatives
from civil society, and the business and scientific communities provided the Panel with an
opportunity to learn about the variety of problems and the necessary directions for policy
making in the future, and to prepare the current report in 2017. The text of the report
proceeds from the facts of “the drama of water”, that is a set of circumstances characterized
by the growing scarcity of freshwater, deteriorating water quality, and the adverse effects of
existing patterns of water use on the available water quantity and quality in many parts of
the world. Moreover, the overwhelming proportion of the physical effects of climate change
is transmitted through water, a factor likely to exacerbate the drama in the coming years. All
of these phenomena are creating pressure around water and further weaken international
security in many parts of the world.

These tendencies themselves call for stronger and more coherent global cooperation on
water. In addition, the question of water resources and installations during armed conflicts
is becoming increasingly serious. The Panel studied the problem of water in contemporary
armed conflicts in which water resources and installations are increasingly targets of attack
or used as weapons of war. The Panel recommends a number of measures relating to the
protection of civilians in armed conflicts, to the support of humanitarian organizations and,
above all, for a coherent policy on the protection of water resources and installations in the
situations on the agenda of the UN Security Council.

The Panel is firmly of the view that international water cooperation should be developed
into a major instrument used in strengthening international stability and peace, and conflict

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