This editorial by Michelle Sanborn appeared in The Laconia Daily Sun, November 15, 2018. She is the current serving president of the New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN). To The Daily Sun, Did you know that our individual right to collectively come together and cast a vote on matters that actually mean something to our [...]
Nature has been treated in law as property, and exploited. But there is growing legal recognition that nature has rights, and affirming these is essential to both a healthy environment and human rights. This article by Mari Margil appeared on Open Global Rights, November 14th, 2018. The human right to a healthy environment is gaining [...]
Mother Nature’s allies have a new attitude. This Editorial by Pay Bywater appeared in GoErie.com, November 11th, 2018. Far-reaching implications are on the line as the movement to redefine America’s cultural and legal notion of nature takes root in our region. Perceived threats to Lake Erie and the Allegheny River have brought concerned residents, Native [...]
This editorial by Douglas Darrell, a New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN) board member, was published on Fosters.com, October 9th, 2018. ll people are born with inalienable rights — the right to practice one’s chosen religion, to exercise free speech, etc. These rights define our personhood and cannot be transferred from person to person; they [...]
Organizers in Toledo work to save their drinking water. This article by Valerie Vande Panne was published on Alternet, September 27th, 2018. Imagine for a moment, putting the rights of nature into public policy: Your town charter, your state constitution, or even federal law. Imagine, for a moment, giving the Great Lakes—the world’s largest source [...]
A brief reflection about the Rights of Nature idea and movement by Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF’s National Organizing Director Ben Price remembers 2008, when CELDF assisted in the drafting of Rights of Nature provisions for Ecuador’s new constitution. The Ecuadorian people adopted their new constitution overwhelmingly, with nearly 64% of [...]
Residents in Columbus and Toledo are being told they don’t have the authority to vote to protect their drinking water this November. This article by Simon Davis-Cohen appeared in The Progressive, September 25, 2018. Markie Miller, an organizer from Toledo, Ohio, has been working for more than two years to pass a Lake Erie Bill of [...]
This article by Sharon Lerner appeared in The Intercept on September 15th, 2018. Brief commentary by Community Rights US Media Team member Curt Hubatch: It's no wonder, after reading the first two paragraphs of this article, why the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico said what they said about the growing Community Rights movement in the [...]
This article by Will Falk was published on the Voices of Diversity website, September 3rd, 2018. I need to come clean. When I joined Colorado River Ecosystem v. Colorado, the first-ever federal lawsuit to seek personhood and the rights of nature for a major ecosystem,my intentions were not completely sincere. The truth is, I never thought we [...]
This letter to the editor by Gregory Pace appeared in The Columbus Dispatch, August 31st, 2018. The Franklin County Board of Elections committed a travesty last week when it refused to put a citizen initiative that was duly approved by Columbus City Council, including two city attorneys, on the November ballot. During the past year, [...]
