The 1992 UNECE Convention aims to protect and ensure the quantity, quality and sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation, and provides an intergovernmental platform for the day-to-day development and advancement of transboundary cooperation. Negotiated as a regional instrument, it turned into a universally available legal framework for transboundary water cooperation, following the entry into force of amendments in February 2013, opening it to all UN Member States. As of 1st March 2016, countries outside the ECE region can accede to the Convention.The 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses is the only treaty governing shared freshwater resources that is of universal applicability. It is a framework convention, in the sense that it provides a framework of principles and rules that may be applied and adjusted to suit the characteristics of particular international watercourses.
