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 [...]
The High Court has given orders to give some legal rights to all the rivers in Bangladesh This article by Nawaz Farhin Antara was published in the Dhaka Tribune, January 30th, 2019. -- The High Court on Wednesday accorded the Turag river the status of “legal person” to save it from encroachment and said that [...]
This opinion piece by Thomas Suddes of Cleveland.com was published, January 26th, 2019. Wherever they are, Theodore Roosevelt and his allies at Ohio’s 1912 constitutional convention must have smiled Wednesday. That’s when the state Supreme Court refused to yank from Toledo’s ballot a voter-initiated city charter amendment creating a Lake Erie Bill of Rights. It’ll be on [...]
Where Capitalism faces Rights of Nature, a community fights to keep Democracy alive. Invisible Hand, a Rights of Nature documentary, hasn't been released to the public yet. They do have a website where you can view the 3 minute trailer (which I highly recommend!), read more about the story behind the movie, and see where [...]
This article by Tom Henry appeared in The Toledo Blade, December 21st, 2018. The Lucas County Board of Elections has ended the months-long debate over Toledo’s other citizen-led ballot initiative from 2018 by doing the same for the proposed Lake Erie Bill of Rights as it did for the Keep the Jail Downtown Toledo’s initiative a month ago. Both [...]
This story about the courageous citizens and local government officials of Grant Township was written and published by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Should a liquor distributor be allowed to sue a “dry county” over lost profits? Should a tobacco company be allowed to sue a municipality over profits lost due to a [...]
This 3 minute video about Grant Township's resistance to having their water poisoned by Pennsylvania Gas and Electric (PGE) was published by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) on, December 17th, 2018. PGE wants to use the Township as a dumping ground by injecting fracking wastewater under the ground the citizens of Grant Township [...]
This op-ed by Dolly McPhaul appeared in the Concord Monitor on December 15th, 2018. -- It is time for Gov. Chris Sununu to place his allegiance with the people of New Hampshire, where it belongs. Sununu was elected, and is paid, by the people of New Hampshire for representing them. However, he has received Eversource money as [...]
This story about the fight for democracy in Ohio was recently published by The Community Environmental Legal Defense fund (CELDF) on their website. “Let us vote! Let us vote!” members of the Columbus Community Bill of Rights organization chant outside county offices and their state courthouse. “Let us vote!” “It’s crystal clear that not only [...]
This article by Ryan Dunn appeared in The Toledo Blade, December 10th, 2018. A last-minute filing Monday to the Lucas County Board of Elections again postponed the possible ballot addition of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. The submitted protest regarding a proposed Toledo city charter amendment by law now sets a hearing in which both sides [...]
