International Scheldt Commission

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Organizational Purpose Described as:

– river basin organization
– formal commission

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The multilateral commission was established 1994 and is based upon the Treaty on the Protection of the Scheldt. It covers the Schelde River and includes Belgium, France and Netherlands.

Secretariat

Functions of the secretariat include: provides assistance in the execution of its tasks, sustains functioning of working groups and projects, organizes their gatherings and meetings and translates documents and sends them to various delegations.

Relevant Water Law Principles

International water law principles mentioned in legally relevant documents to this organization include: Helsinki Rules and polluter pays principle.

Organizational Bodies

Organizational bodies include: Commission/Plenary Meeting, Head of Delegations Meeting, Secretariat and Working Groups (Incidental Pollution, Communication, Cartography, Surface Water, Groundwater, Cost Efficiency Analysis, Floods/Droughts).

Decision-making Mechanisms

The commission formulates its advice and recommendations and takes its decisions by unanimous vote; absence of party is considered as abstention. One abstention does, however, not prevent taking decisions in unanimity.

Dispute Resolution Mechanisms

Parties engage in solution found through negotiation or by any other means of dispute resolution that judge acceptable and suitable. The first instance of a dispute between parties is resolved bilaterally between disputing parties through negotiation without RBO involvement.

External Links

• International River Basin Organization database — The International RBO Database was created by Susanne Schmeir as part of her PhD research and has been incorporated into the resources hosted by the Transboundary Freshwater Disputes Database at Oregon State University. It is available in a queryable online form, data download.

Articles linked to International Scheldt Commission

Riparians	Water Features

Projects and Initiatives	Agreements and Treaties