Beyond Sustainability: Giving Rights to Nature – Towards a non-human-centred practice of making justice

International Discussion (online)

Since 2006, 493 initiatives recognizing rights of nature have been pursued in 44 countries by constitutional provisions, national or local laws, policy instruments, court decisions or UN-programmes. The idea of defining ecosystems, habitats or animal and plant species as holder of legal rights, is slowly trickling down into legal canons all over the world, but also into academic institutions, NGOs and environmental grassroot movements. However, extending rights to non-human entities, being capable of filing lawsuits in its own name, entails complex questions. Where is the practical added value for an effective protection of the living systems on planet earth in times of crisis? Will it inflict constant conflicts with human rights or interests? In how far can the change of a human-centred rights concept to a more-than-human one be a winner’s game also for democracy, justice and equality, beyond the ecological dimension?

Speakers:
Christian Cray is a board member of the German Rights of Nature Network (www.rechte-der-natur.de) and an activist for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN). He lived in Ecuador, where Nature was granted rights on constitutional level. He is also a member of the learn2change network.
Claudia Gimena Roa Avendaño for many years has been committed to education in rural and urban regions of Colombia. Together with the team of Fundaexpresión (www.fundaexpresion.org), she works for a good life and the rights of nature in the Andes and the Amazon region.

Contact:
Gabriele Janecki, Sarah Laustroer
learn2change@vnb.de

Flyer