LFN Researcher Alex May had a great time attending the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland's Environmental Rights Summit yesterday. He delivered a workshop about what Rights of Nature are, developments around the world, and how we might advance them in the UK.
The packed event brought together people working on the whole range of environmental issues across Scotland.
One of the focuses was on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment ('RtHE'), which is proposed to be included in the new Scottish Human Rights Bill and the ERCS have been running a strong campaign for. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment gave a keynote speech, which included a mention of the link between the RtHE and Rights of Nature, as has been recognised by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and in some jurisdictions in Latin America.
In our view, fulfillment of the RtHE means protection of the enviroment as a whole, and while this could be done through existing regulatory approaches, Rights of Nature is a stronger way to safeguard ecological integrity where approaches over the last decades have generally failed to do so. What is good for nature as a whole is good for humans!
The presentation was well received and inspired some great questions, including about land ownership, whether pushing for Rights of Nature might take momentum away from advancing Rights of Nature, the relationship between legal change and cultural change, and whether the master's tools can be used to dismantle the master's house.
We are really pleased that the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland is pushing forward on Rights of Nature and look forward to working with them more in the future.
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Today we are pleased to publish a new report titled “Realising Rights of Nature: Conceptual Foundations for Legislation” by Alex May. This new report seeks to map out the breadth and depth of what Rights of Nature legislation could cover, including the different elements which a legislative framework would need, the different dimensions of rights and subjecthood, the different legal effects and areas of law which could be included, alongside some possible legislative models. Much of this is relevant for anyone thinking about how best to implant Rights of Nature.
The festival is three days of discussions about converting radical ideas into practical action, around the focus of our relationship with the rest of nature. Presented by House of Hackney, it's a festival of ideas and coming together of passionate advocates for the regeneration of Nature for the quality of life of all future generations.
