WCC Feature: WCC joins water justice movements demanding human rights focus at UN conference

Water justice movements, including faith-based networks and civil society groups, are holding the United Nations accountable as the world prepares for only the third UN Water Conference in 50 years.  Dinesh Suna, among the rapporteurs and facilitators of Stakeholder Consultation, presenting reports of their Interactive Dialogue sessions Photo: People's Water Forum 29 January 2026 At the High-Level Preparatory Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on 25-27 January, the People's Water Forum – which includes the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network – issued a statement challenging corporate influence in global water governance and reiterating nine demands from the Water Justice Manifesto signed by more than 500 organizations. The 2026 UN Water Conference takes place 2-4 December in the United Arab Emirates, co-hosted by Senegal and the UAE. After the first UN water conference in 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the UN took a 45-year hiatus before organizing the second conference in New York in 2023. Corporate sectors filled that void, dominating water policy through forums like the World Water Forum. Grassroots movements found these forums largely out of reach, with registration fees at 1,000 euros and side events costing 2.500 euros. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food and coordinator of the Ecumenical Water Network, co-facilitated Interactive Dialogue 3 on "Water for Planet" at Dakar. There were six interactive dialogues. He presented a stakeholder “think piece” urging shifts in water governance, ecosystem protection and climate resilience. Freshwater ecosystems are water-giving systems, the think piece stated, and outlined recommendations including integrating water policies across climate, biodiversity, and land management.     WF members  and allies with UN Special Rapporteur after issuing a press statement at UN Water conference, Dakar  Photo: People's Water Forum People's Water Forum members organized a press conference with civil society representatives and UN special rapporteur Prof. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo. Their statement challenged the conference architecture: "The Conference architecture entrenches multi-stakeholder governance as the dominant mode of engagement, placing corporations and financial actors on equal footing with states and communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on water." The statement also addressed debt justice, which it called inseparable from water justice. The Africa Water Justice Network argues that debt servicing undermines government capacity for public spending on water, sanitation, and health. The statement challenged the silence on water deprivation as a tool of human rights violations in Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. "The UN Water Conference's claims of addressing pressing global water issues have no credibility without explicit recognition of these grave injustices," it stated. The People's Water Forum called for a formal intergovernmental mechanism that ensures the primacy of human rights, creates binding commitments for universal water access by 2030, cancels unsustainable debt, and rejects market-based governance models that deepen global inequities. In the months ahead, water justice movements will push to ensure that marginalized communities and faith-based organizations remain central to global water policy discussions. People's Water Forum statement Water Justice Manifesto UN Water Conference 2026  See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland