A Delhi-based Indian NGO has called for a formal review of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) at the 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, arguing that the 1960 agreement between India and Pakistan must be reassessed in light of contemporary water-security realities and human-rights obligations. The statement was delivered on 15 September 2026 under Item 3 of the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The Core Argument at UNHRC

Addressing the Council, the NGO stated that access to water is intrinsically linked to the rights to life, health, food, housing, dignity, and development — rights recognised by the United Nations as fundamental. It argued that international water treaties must be implemented in a manner that strengthens, rather than constrains, a state's ability to meet its human-rights obligations toward communities under its jurisdiction.

The NGO described the IWT as an important example of longstanding international cooperation but noted that it was signed more than six decades ago, when the region's water-security environment was markedly different. It concluded that human rights and international cooperation are complementary, and that transboundary water governance should place people, dignity, and fundamental rights at its centre.

Changing Ground Realities Cited

The statement cited population growth, climate change, glacier retreat, groundwater depletion, and increasingly unpredictable river flows as factors that have fundamentally transformed water-security challenges across the Indus basin since 1960. It argued that contemporary treaty implementation should not prevent states from fulfilling obligations towards their own populations, and described a review of the IWT as an imperative, also referencing the treaty's current state of abeyance.

India's Position on the IWT and Court of Arbitration

The NGO's statement comes against a charged diplomatic backdrop. On 31 August, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected the latest award issued by what it termed the 'illegally constituted' Court of Arbitration (CoA) concerning interim measures and the status of the IWT.

In its statement, the MEA said: 'Today, the illegally constituted so-called Court of Arbitration (CoA) has issued what it termed as an award concerning Interim Measures and Status of the Indus Waters Treaty. This so called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body.'

The MEA further stressed that India has never recognised the legal existence of the arbitral body, has never appeared before it, and that its pronouncements will have no effect on India's actions in connection with projects being undertaken on the Western Rivers. The Court had directed India to observe its treaty obligations, including those relating to the design and operation of its hydro-electric projects, notably the Ratle Hydro-Electric Plant (RHEP).

Background: Pahalgam Attack and Treaty Abeyance

India placed the IWT in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack, exercising what it described as its rights as a sovereign nation under international law. The MEA has stated the abeyance will remain in force until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. The IWT, originally signed on 19 September 1960, governs the utilisation of waters of the Indus river system between the two nations.

The NGO's intervention at the UNHRC adds a human-rights dimension to what has largely been framed as a bilateral and legal dispute, potentially widening the international forum in which the treaty's future is debated.