Ecocide - Give Nature Rights

10/31/2018 ecocide , ecosystem , law , nature , UN 0 Comments

By giving nature legal rights could we halt the ongoing onslaught on vital ecosystems that sustain us? There is currently an upswing in proposals of giving legal rights to ecosystems all around the world as a response to the ongoing onslaught on the natural world.

Ecocide is the loss or damage to, or destruction of ecosystems of a given territory, such that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or will be severely diminished.

The power of laws to prevent ecocide is that it creates a legal duty of care that holds peoples responsible to account for the wellbeing of ecosystems. Its an evolving legal approach that wants to change the traditional legal systems description of nature as property to only be used for human benefit. And its based in the recognition that humankind and Nature have co-evolved and co-exist on the planet. It's basically an attempt to create better stewardship of ecosystems by using the legal system. Also known as Earth jurisprudence. 

The basic assumptions are that all living beings have fundamental “rights”, including the right to exist, to have a habitat and to participate in the evolution of life on Earth. These so called rights are limited by the rights of other beings to the extent necessary to maintain the integrity, balance and health of the communities where they exist. 

I have discussed in a previous post about how there are no metaphysical, god given, rights only applicable to humans as believed in the 17th century. Rights are a human construct. So we have to use moral philosophy, ethics, to derive moral values that can guide our conceptions of rights and duties. Most people in the western world today acknowledges that every human has the same fundamental rights independent of sex, ethnicity, sexuality etc. Many countries also have animal rights and environmental protection but to a very limited extent. This reflects how our values have changed over time, yet they are still entirely human centered. A western legacy that is different from native peoples perception of nature.

The idea that a river is a living being is a strange concept to most westerners but it's nothing new to indigenous and traditional peoples. Thats because indigenous philosophical systems tend to see humans as a part of nature not as separate or dominant over nature as the western system does. 

There are several examples of countries that have applied the indigenous idea of “Rights of Nature” to ecosystems. In 2008 Ecuador wrote in Nature rights into the constitution, acknowledging that all life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles. And Bolivia adopted its Law under the Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well in 2012. In 2017, New Zealand passed the Te Awa Tupua Bill which granted the Whanganui River the rights of legal personhood. And in India the holy Ganges and Yamuna Rivers where also granted legal personhood status. In practice this means that if the rivers are threatened by human activity there can be a legal case in court on behalf of the rivers. The fact that such rights could become a reality depend to a large extent on indigenous peoples strong connection to the ecosystem. They have a spiritual connection to the river, see it as sacred, and have a wish to protect it from human destruction. 

There is a shift in values all around the world, driven by non-western traditions and peoples, that will influence legal systems around the planet. Because western ideas and philosophy has failed to halt the ongoing destruction of the natural world people have turned to other sources of inspiration. 

The main goal for many proponents is to achieve an international law against ecocide, habitat destruction, that could safeguard current and future humans and Natures wellbeing. A proposal to amend the Rome Statute, Article 5 - crimes against peace, to include an international crime of Ecocide into the UN legal framework was put forward in 2010. If achieved the crime of Ecocide would be included in Article 5 along with the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression. The idea is actually not new, but has been downplayed and dismissed since the 1970s.