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WATER DIPLOMACYand Scheldt, and for the lakes Geneva, Ohrid and Peipsi – inspiredor influenced by the convention.An important strength of the convention lies in its institutionalframework that stems from its governing body, the Meeting of theParties, supported by intergovernmental working groups, task forcesand a permanent secretariat. That institutional framework assistsparties in the implementation and progressive development of theconvention, including through the exchange of experience andgood practices, elaboration of guidelines and recommendations, thedevelopment of legally-binding protocols and capacity development.In other words, a party is not left alone to implement the convention:its needs and expectations may be brought to the attention ofthe institutions that underpin the convention.UNECE is supporting parties and other states in implementing theconvention and establishing transboundary agreements, including inprevious conflict areas and unstable regions, such as the Sava and Drinriver basins in the former Yugoslavia, the Dniester River between theRepublic of Moldova and Ukraine, and the Kura River in the Caucasus.As of July 2013, 38 countries plus the European Union havejoined the convention, from Portugal in the west to Kazakhstanand the Russian Federation in the east; the most recent to join wasTurkmenistan, in 2012. (There are 56 member states of UNECE butseveral – notably some island states – do not share water resourceswith other member states.)These agreements and joint bodies are significant achievements,as are similar successes in many other transboundary basins aroundthe world, but many transboundary basins and aquifers worldwidestill lack such agreements and institutions. More efforts are neededto facilitate transboundary agreements and joint institutions for alltransboundary basins and aquifers, to provide strong and long-termtransboundary cooperation for the benefit of populations, economiesand nature. The convention provides a unique intergovernmentalplatform for those efforts.Back in 2003, the parties to the convention, realizing its effectivenessand that there was nothing specifically ‘European’ aboutits provisions, decided to amend it so that countries in otherregions of the world could also benefit from this valuable framework.This desire was echoed by Ban Ki-moon, United NationsSecretary-General, in 2012: “I encourage countries outsidethe UNECE region to join the convention and contribute to itsfurther development”. At last, after a decade’s wait, the amendmententered into force in February 2013, making a great start tothe United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation. It isexpected that countries outside the UNECE region will begin tojoin the convention in 2014.The International Year of Water Cooperation may also see the entryinto force of a second global treaty on transboundary water cooperation:the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Usesof International Watercourses, negotiated by the United NationsInternational Law Commission and adopted by the General Assemblyin New York in 1997. These two treaties, with slightly differing buttotally complementary approaches to transboundary water cooperation,provide countries with a comprehensive legal framework forcooperation. At the time of writing, 30 countries from around theglobe had joined the New York Convention. Meanwhile, over 50countries from outside the UNECE region have already been involvedin activities under the Helsinki Convention and several of them haveexpressed interest in joining the convention. For example, in June2013, about 20 countries from Latin America and the Caribbeanjoined a workshop on the Helsinki Convention held inBuenos Aires. There is plainly a globalization both oftreaties and of interest in these treaties.Naturally, countries wish to understand the benefitsof transboundary water cooperation which, thoughthey may appear obvious, vary significantly accordingto many factors, including the upstream or downstreamposition, the levels of economic development and internationaltrade, and governance structures. To answercountries’ questions, work has begun under the HelsinkiConvention to produce guidance on the identification,quantification and communication of the wide range ofbenefits of transboundary water cooperation. By enablingthe identification of benefits to be shared in a broadersense – that is, benefits derived from the use of waterin the comprehensive understanding of the conventionincluding, for instance, use related to human health,economic and social aspects – rather than focusing onwater allocation only, this activity should also provideopportunities for further broadening cooperation.Some of the benefits of cooperation are well knownto the water policy community – such as health andMost of the rural population in the Caucasus and Central Asia lacksaccess to piped water on premisesImage: UNECE[ 21 ]