GIWEH’s Director General, Dr. Nidal Salim was invited to participate at the first water and human rights conference in Ramallah, Palestine on December 19th 2016. The conference was organized by the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG) in cooperation with the Palestinian Environment NGO Network  (Pengon- for Palestine) and funded by the European Union.

The event gathered different water stakeholders in Palestine, including farmers, water users, water utility, academia and the government and was hosted by the Minister of Water at the Palestinian Water Authority, Mr. Mazen Ghumeim.

During the conference, participants discussed the water challenges the Palestinians face in their daily lives. The event also aimed to highlight the voice of individuals representing the civil society and of individuals of Palestinian refugee camps. Among the topic discussed were the use of water by the Israeli government as a tool for political control as well as the fragility and limit of International Law to deal with the link between water and human rights in Palestine.

The main recommendations of the conference stressed on creating a National Water Rights Council in Palestine and to include the Palestinian water rights as top priority of the political agenda to work on two parallel sessions internally and externally.

The conference was a great opportunity for GIWEH and for Dr. Salim to meet with his Palestinian colleagues and discuss the different possibilities of cooperation between GIWEH and Palestinian Water Stakeholders, especially the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG).