Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Vis-À-Vis Contemporary International Laws: Analysis of the Right to Development with Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

water among riparian states resulted in different problems. The lack of perfect political will to cooperate by riparian countries in general and Egypt, in particular, is another problem that poses challenges to achieving equitable water share through years over the Nile. The main objective of this paper is to scrutinize the legal analysis of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam from a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) perspective. The researcher used document review methods such as colonial agreements (1891-1959), the 1986 UN Declaration of the right to development, and the 1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights.  It was found Ethiopia has an international legal right, the right to development, and building the dam on its own Nile river-based rules and principles as required by the 1997 UN watercourse convention, African charter on human and peoples’ rights, Customary international laws, the 1986 UN Declaration of Rights to Development (RTD) and the Sustainable Development Goals. The article recommends that the six countries that signed the Cooperative Framework Agreement in 2010 (CFA) should go ahead and ratify it and raise awareness about the benefits of CFA using data and technical experts. They also need to sign and ratify the UN-Water convention so that it acts as a basis for negotiating, and they have to use continuous negotiations of third parties as CFA is in light with the contemporary international laws and development programs such as the sustainable development goals that were adopted with a commitment to fight global poverty and ensuring sustainable development.