Panama Champions a Universal Declaration on The Rights of Nature
From the podium of the UN General Assembly, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has urged fellow leaders to support a treaty affirming that nature has inherent rights.
“Today I am announcing that Panama will lead internationally an effort to recognize the universal rights of nature. And I ask all of you to support us in this initiative.” His government is already working with the UN Harmony with Nature program, and is now aiming to formally open inter-governmental negotiations on a declaration asserting that nature has rights and articulating what those rights are.
Panama is one of more than a dozen countries - along with England, Spain, Peru, Brazil and New Zealand - that have national laws or court rulings recognizing the legal rights of nature as a whole, or specific ecosystems or species. Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine the Rights of Nature in its national constitution in 2008.
Rights of nature laws, in the view of both its advocates and opponents, upend existing legal systems, reports Inside Climate News. Rather than designing environmental protection laws through the lens of human interest, the movement’s objective is to align human-made laws with the biophysical laws of the planet - human activity would need to conform to what science shows species and ecosystems need to thrive.
If Panama's resolution passes in December, two co-facilitators - one from a developed country and one from a developing country - would guide governments through drafting and negotiation, with Panama aiming for a proposal by 2030, according to Callie Veelenturf, a marine conservation biologist whose foundation forNature is supporting the initiative.
