The Principle of Cooperation in the Use of International Watercourses, with Emphasis on Iran-Iraq International Watercourses

Nowadays, the increased use of international watercourses for non-navigational purposes, such as agricultural, industrial, and trade use has put them in the spotlight. Meanwhile, global weather change, droughts, excessive uses of water resources, scarcity of water resources, and population growth have increased the conflicts over international waterways. One of the common principles in public international law is the principle of cooperation between the countries emphasized in the UN charter and a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements, including the 1977 Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses. In recent years debates between Iran and Iraq over the use of international waters have intensified and it seems without cooperation between both countries these debates cannot be resolved. Therefore, the principle of cooperation regarding international watercourses has been chosen as the subject of this research. This research has applied descriptive and analytic methodology. The purpose of this study is to show to what extent the principle of cooperation is reflected or indeed implemented in the international and bilateral agreements on watercourses between Iran and Iraq.