Organisation of Conferences and Workshops

Platform members collaborate with various partners such as the Geneva Water Hub, the Institute for Environmental Sciences, the Swiss Water Partnership and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to organise conferences and workshops.

In 2015, the Platform jointly organized two events with the Geneva Water Hub and the Institute for Environmental Sciences: a Workshop on “International Water Law: Issues of Implementation”, which took place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva on 10 July 2015 (the program is available here), and a Roundtable on “Cooperation and Benefit-Sharing in the Basins of the Senegal and Niger Rivers,” which was held at the World Meteorological Organization on 24 September 2015 (the program is available here). At the July event, Christina Leb gave a paper on “International Water Law Guiding State Practice in Riparian Cooperation”. Komlan Sangbana and Mara Tignino presented a report on the topic of “Le statut d’ouvrages communs et le partage des bénéfices dans les bassins des fleuves Sénégal et Niger” at the September Roundtable.

Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Christina Leb and Mara Tignino organised an international conference on the topic of “Freshwater and International Law: the Multiple Challenges”, held at the University of Geneva on July 7-9, 2011. The objective was to facilitate a multidisciplinary dialogue and to share recent research on the management and protection of transboundary water resources, approached through the lens of recent developments in international law and particularly in international water law. The event brought together over 120 participants, including leading academics and practitioners from Africa, Europe, India, the United States and South America, to discuss key issues such as the protection of transboundary aquifers, the link between water and climate change, and the risk of conflict. The event provided an opportunity to take stock of the regulatory forms governing international watercourses and to share thoughts on the growing need to integrate law into natural and physical sciences and to enable it to contribute to better water management and protection, both at the international and local levels. The event was organised with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), the Société Académique of Geneva, the Services Industriels de Genève (SIG), and the Stiftung zur Förderung der rechtlichen und wirtschaftlichen Forschung of the University of Basel. The conference programme is available here: Programme

The Platform was a co-convener of the workshop “Why does water law matter to you? Exploring local to global perspectives” organised on 14 March 2012 at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille. It also contributed to the organisation of the Research Day on Sustainable Development, which was held on 22 November 2012 at the University of Geneva. The event brought together researchers from all disciplines to discuss the main issues of sustainability research.

In September 2013, Mara Tignino and Komlan Sangbana collaborated with the Swiss Water Partnership to organise the “Knowledge and Trade Fair” held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich. They presented a poster on the joint management of water infrastructure and the rights of local communities.

Mara Tignino and Komlan Sangbana organised an international conference on the question of “Public Participation and Water Resources Management: Where Do We Stand in International Law?” with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, held on 13 December 2013 at the Palais des Nations. The proceedings of the conference have been published by the UNESCO-International Hydrologic Programme.

In September 2014, Mara Tignino and Komlan Sangbana contributed to the development of a Seminar on “Tackling Trade-Offs between Water and Energy Across Sectors and Scales”,organised by the SWP at the World Water Week in Stockholm. Makane Mbengue spoke at this event.