Now that the Parliament of Catalonia has approved the recognition of the human right to water by incorporating it into the Water Act, and has agreed to introduce a universal minimum water allowance, fully subsidised for vulnerable households, this article examines how an equivalent recognition of the right to energy could be developed.
Ecoserveis has produced several reports exploring the concept of the right to energy. The most recent, published by the Third Sector Platform of Catalonia, specifically examines the relationship between the right to energy and the human right to water.
The year 2010 marks the formal legal consolidation of the human right to water and sanitation within the UN system (UN Resolution 64/292). This consolidation did not create the right ex nihilo; it crystallised decades of interpretation, practice and political consensus into authoritative legal recognition. Energy, while not formally recognised today as a human right, is increasingly following a parallel socio-legal trajectory. Understanding how water achieved this status provides a clear blueprint for how energy could plausibly follow the same path.
The story of water shows that human rights are not static. They evolve as societies change, as material conditions shift, and as new forms of vulnerability become visible.
Human rights rarely appear fully formed
Crucially, the right to water was not explicitly written into the foundational human rights texts. Neither the Universal Declaration of Human Rights nor the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights mentions water as a standalone right.
Instead, water was progressively interpreted as implicitly contained within the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to the highest attainable standard of health.
Only later—through interpretation, political mobilisation and institutional clarification—did water become recognised as a distinct human right.
Energy sits today exactly where water once did.
It is indispensable for health, dignity, food preservation, thermal comfort, communication and participation in society.
Soft law precedes hard law
Water did not become a human right through a single legal act. It emerged gradually through international conferences, declarations and policy frameworks, well before it entered binding legal interpretation. This “soft law” phase allowed consensus to build before legal codification followed.
Energy is already in this phase. Global climate, development and sustainability forums increasingly frame access to modern energy as essential to poverty eradication, health, education and gender equality. The same discursive space that once hosted water is now hosting energy—especially in the context of decarbonisation and just transitions.
Rights crystallise through justice struggles
The decisive acceleration of the right to water came from social conflict, not abstract theory. Protests against privatisation, price shocks and exclusion—most famously in Latin America—transformed water from a technical service into a symbol of dignity, justice and resistance to commodification.
Human rights often emerge when market-based provision visibly fails to protect the most vulnerable.
Energy exhibits similar fault lines: price volatility, disconnections, and unequal exposure to energy insecurity during crises. As energy systems electrify and decarbonise, these tensions intensify. Where access to energy becomes precarious or unaffordable, political mobilisation around energy justice is not hypothetical—it is predictable.
From abstraction to obligations: defining the “ilities”
The recognition of water as a human right only became operational when it was defined through concrete obligations, often summarised as the “ilities”: availability, quality, accessibility, affordability and non-discrimination.
This framework shifted the debate from whether water is a right to what states must do to guarantee it.
A future recognition of the right to energy would almost certainly require the same step: a vital minimum energy, accessibility, protection against exclusion due to inability to pay, and specific safeguards for vulnerable groups. Without this step, any right remains rhetorical. With it, public policy becomes enforceable and accountable.
Energy as the next human right to be recognized
Seen in historical perspective, recognising energy as a human right would not represent an expansion of human rights beyond their logic, but a continuation of it.
Just as modern societies eventually accepted that civil freedoms are meaningless without food and shelter, and shelter is undignified without water and sanitation, they are now confronting the reality that a dignified life without energy is no longer possible.
Energy is not merely another service. It is the enabling infrastructure upon which health, safety, participation and equality now depend.
Conclusion: not a question of “if”, but “how”
The recognition of the human right to water teaches us three essential lessons. Rights emerge incrementally, political struggle matters, and services indispensable to dignity can shift from commodities to protected entitlements.
History suggests a clear conclusion: when access to an essential service becomes a condition for living with dignity, international human rights law ends up adapting to reflect this reality.
