[P2P-F] Fwd: Global Rights of Nature Summit and Public Tribunal :: Rights of Nature

Mon Feb 17 23:33:37 CET 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sterling Family <jeffreygsterling at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 3:05 PM
Subject: Global Rights of Nature Summit and Public Tribunal :: Rights of
Nature
To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

fyi...hope all is well

http://therightsofnature.org/conferences/rights-of-nature-summit-tribunal/

Global Rights of Nature Summit and Public Tribunal

NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: Robin R. Milam
Immediate Release: January 8, 2014
*530.272.4322/Nature at TheRightsofNature.org
<530.272.4322/Nature at TheRightsofNature.org> *

*GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR THE EMERGENT "RIGHTS OF NATURE" MOVEMENT TO HOLD ITS
FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT FOLLOWED BY A PUBLIC TRIBUNAL OF ACTUAL CASES *

*OTAVALO & QUITO, ECUADOR: JANUARY 13-17 <13-17>, 2014*

Key leaders of the emergent nature rights movement are holding an
international summit in Ecuador on January 13-17, 2014. Its twofold purpose
is to analyze the experiences of communities in Ecuador, Bolivia, and
United States that have already implemented "Rights of Nature" laws and to
devise a unified global strategy for advancing the Rights of Nature
movement around the world.

The summit will conclude on Friday, January 17, with a public Tribunal in
Quito where key Rights of Nature cases will be heard, including the
Chevron/Texaco case in Ecuador, the oil exploitation of Yasuní-ITT in
Ecuador's rainforest, and the threats to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Drawing on precedents established in other successful Rights of Nature
cases - such as the one finding that the rights of the Vilcabamba River had
been violated by pollution - the Tribunal will model how to adjudicate the
rights of nature in courts of law.

The four-dozen principals attending the summit represent diverse
disciplines, cultures, nations, and bioregions as part of the Global
Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Among the attendees are Indian physicist
Vandana Shiva, South African lawyer and author Cormac Cullinan, North
American indigenous leader Tom Goldtooth, former Bolivian U.N. ambassador
Pablo Solón, Canadian aboriginal actress Tantoo Cardinal, and U.S.
community rights attorney Thomas Linzey. The group as a whole is comprised
of economists, lawyers, scientists, indigenous leaders, community
activists, nuns, actors, authors, and public officials hailing from
Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, United States, Spain, Canada, India,
Romania, Bolivia, Argentina, and England, as well as Ecuador.

The summit marks the first time leaders of the Global Alliance for the
Rights of Nature are coming together since 2010 when they created the
organization as a vehicle to help advance the cutting edge work that each
was carrying out in his or her home country. The historic 2010 gathering
that forged the Global Alliance also was held in Ecuador, the first nation
in the world to adopt Rights of Nature in its Constitution, in 2008.

*The Tribunal will be held on Friday, January 17, at Hotel Quito, in Quito,
where the Global Alliance will also host a Press Conference to report the
results of the summit and next steps for the Rights of Nature movement. The
Press Conference is at 10:30 am. The Tribunal will consider seven cases and
run from 8:30 am to 17:00 pm. Press kits for the Tribunal will be
available.*

"The Rights of Nature movement is a response in the order of magnitude
necessary to end the legalized plundering that is ravaging our planet and
imperiling our young and the young of all species," says Robin R. Milam,
Administrative Director of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature. "By
recognizing nature's right to exist and thrive, people can assert those
rights on nature's behalf, rejecting actions that permit harmful, unwanted
development in their communities."

*Rights of Nature: Background*

The Rights of Nature movement draws on indigenous wisdom in positing a new
jurisprudence that recognizes the right of nature in all its forms to
exist, persist, evolve and regenerate.

"A 40-year regime of environmental laws in the United States and other
industrial nations has failed to protect against the escalating ravages
evident around the world, including decimated species, depleted forest
reserves, water shortages, and record-breaking hurricanes," says Robin R.
Milam, Administrative Director of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature.
"An entirely new approach is needed."

Recognizing the rights of nature, which humans would have standing to
enforce, reflects a shift in consciousness away from a legal system that
treats nature as property for human use. "It is akin to the shift in
consciousness - and change in laws - that took place when people said we
should stop treating women, enslaved, or indigenous people as property,"
Milam said. "And it is foundational: Human rights are meaningless without
fresh water to drink, clean air to breath, safe food to eat."

Local municipalities in the United States were the first to adopt laws
establishing legal structures that recognized Rights of Nature, beginning
in 2006 with Tamaqua Borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Since then
more than two-dozen U.S. communities have adopted local laws recognizing
Rights of Nature, including Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which in November of
2010 became the first major municipality in the United States to do so.

In September 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to
recognize Rights of Nature in its constitution and Bolivia enacted a law
that recognizes rights of Mother Earth.

Nearly 100 grassroots organizations in the Americas, Africa, Asia,
Australia, and Europe are members of the Global Alliance for Rights of
Nature, advancing the Rights of Nature movement in their municipalities,
counties, provinces, and countries.

The Rights of Nature movement is grounded conceptually in an understanding
that humans are one part of an interdependent community of life on Earth.
Human existence--in all its social, economic, industrial, cultural, and
governmental manifestations--is wholly dependent on the health of rivers,
plants, animals, oceans, forests, atmosphere, microbes, and other
ecosystems and beings that with us comprise our living planet.

Beyond enlightened self-interest, the Rights of Nature movement also
emerges philosophically and spiritually out of a sense of the wonder and
awe that the natural world has inspired in humans for millennia, captured
in art, music, and poetry--and our sense of the sacred.

For more, see Global Alliance for Rights of Nature at
www.therightsofnature.org.

#          #          #

Printable News Release - Rights of Nature Summit and Public
Tribunal<http://therightsofnature.org/wp-content/uploads/Press-Advisory-Rights-of-Nature-Summit-Tribunal-Jan-8-2014.pdf>

-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

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