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Chairman’s Foreword

Future historians may look back at the first
decades of the 21 century as the time of
st
dramatic global challenges and wavering global
responses. Never in human history has the world
been as interconnected and interdependent as it
is today. Yet never in human history has the gap
between the awareness of the global challenges
and the actual level of global cooperation been
as deep as it is now. Global peace in our era
must be much more than the mere absence of
a world war. Peace today requires strong and
sophisticated mechanisms for the fostering
of global security and all forms of global
cooperation. Effective global cooperation is
needed for the sustainability of the Earth’s
natural environment, for economic and social
development worldwide, and for the protection
of our common humanity and dignity. Dr Danilo Türk, Chairman

One of the key areas of our common future is water, thus international water cooperation is
an imperative. Its importance is generally recognized – as witnessed in the pronouncements
of the UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000 and the more recent Sustainable
Development Goals of 2015. However, the actual level of international water cooperation
leaves much to be desired. In addition, water problems are becoming ever more central
in the armed conflicts of our era, a tendency that serves as a dramatic reminder of the
fundamental nexus between water, security and peace.

These considerations have led a group of fifteen UN Member States to initiate the creation
of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace. The Panel was launched at a ministerial
meeting in Geneva on 16 November 2015. The fifteen Co-Convening Countries are: Cambodia,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, France, Ghana, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Morocco,
Oman, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland.

The Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace was asked to study the nexus between
water and peace, in light of the experiences of our era and to make recommendations for
water as an instrument of peace. The Panel was composed of fifteen members acting in
their individual capacities. We were tasked with preparing a report within two years and
offering recommendations that would help policy makers in the future. The Panel was also
asked to work in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, notably the UN, and to hold
consultations to get inputs from experts, policy makers and other relevant actors in different
parts of the world.
The Panel met four times between November 2015 and May 2017 to discuss linkages between
water and peace, to conduct its analysis and to formulate its recommendations. The first
meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2015. The second meeting was held
in Dakar, Senegal in April 2016, while the third meeting was held in San Jose, Costa Rica
in December 2016. The fourth and final meeting of the Panel was held in Amman, Jordan
in May 2017. The Panel met with experts and policy makers, as well as with civil society
organizations in the regions where the meetings were held. These consultations provided
the Panel with the opportunity to learn about the diversity of problems and about the

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