Book excerpt: The Human Right to Water and Its Application in the Occupied Palestinian Territories provides an overview and examination of the human right to water as determined under international human rights law. This is a highly topical issue, with the UN General Assembly having passed a resolution which declares access to clean water and sanitation a human right (New York, Jul 28 2010), the recent appointment of the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and movement within the NGO community for an international water treaty. Amanda Cahill Ripley analyses the current legal status, substantive content, and obligations correlative to the right, and examines the relationship between other economic, social and cultural rights related to the right to water. The book goes on to look more specifically at the application of the human right to water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Using innovative methodology, Cahill Ripley combines legal analysis with a qualitative social science empirical case study to explore the enjoyment of the right ‘on the ground’. The wider implications of the case study findings are then considered, looking at what can be done to strengthen the right legally in terms of its status and codification, and what remedy can be found for violations of the right, both specifically in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in a more general context. The book will be of interest to students, academics and practitioners within the fields of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as well as those concerned with international relations and conflict resolution within Israel/Palestine and the wider Middle East region.