This press release was released by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund on May 21, 2019. Crackdowns on local democracy are accelerating, as corporate and state interests continue efforts to repress social movements. In this well-timed book, How Wealth Rules the World, Ben Price presciently reveals structures of power and law that facilitate blatant corporate supremacy in [...]
This article by Sandra Cordon appeared in Landscape News on April 22, 2019. From New Zealand, where a major river has been given legal status, to Ecuador, where nature’s rights are enshrined in the constitution, to India and the U.S., the global movement to recognize Mother Nature’s rights is picking up speed – and raising [...]
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered at Grand Central Station in solidarity with Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline on November 1, 2016.
This article appeared on ANI: South Asia's Multimedia News Agency on April 27th, 2019. Quito [Ecuador], Apr 27 (ANI): The native Waorani community on Friday (local time) fended off major degradation of their lands at the hands of oil companies be defeating three government bodies in court, for conducting a faulty consultation process with the [...]
As several countries rally around the idea of legal rights for natural resources, can a similar status be granted to the Ganga? This article by Shrishtree Bajpai and Ashish Kothari appeared in The Wire on March 19th, 2019. A casual search on the internet yields a plethora of promises, allegations and symbolism linking the Ganga to [...]
This article by Cameron La Follette was published in the American Association of Geographers newsletter on March 6th, 2019. Rights of Nature is a short-hand term for a form of ecological governance that both provides for and prioritizes Nature’s right to flourish. It also provides for various subsidiary rights, such as the right to restoration, [...]
Local residents now have standing in court to sue corporate polluters on behalf of the lake. The local effort has been vigorously opposed by a group linked to some of the largest corporations and lobbying groups on the planet. This article by Simon Davis-Cohen appeared in The Progressive, February 27th, 2019. Last night, residents of [...]
This article by Antonio José Paz Cardona appeared in Mongabay, February 11th, 2019. It's important to note when reading this article that "concessions" are equivalent to "permits" granted to corporations in other systems of law. A court in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province has ordered that the mining concessions already in operation on territory claimed by the Cofán [...]
This article by Jennifer Bjorhus appeared in The Star Tribune, February 9th, 2019. Minnesota’s natural wild rice holds deep cultural, spiritual and economic importance for the state’s American Indian tribes. Now, in one part of the state at least, the native grass holds even more: its own legal rights. Girding for a fight against a [...]
First law securing the rights of a plant species to exist and flourish A press release by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) issued, February 6th, 2019. MERCERSBURG, PA: The White Earth Band of Ojibwe – part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe – adopted a Rights of Manoomin law. The law protects legal rights of manoomin, or [...]
