Los derechos constitucionales de la Naturaleza en Ecuador: casos pendientes de decisión en la Corte Constitucional

Thursday, November 17th, 2022

4 PM Quito/EST, 1 PM PST

Event is free, and registration is not required. In Espanol.

Presented by the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales of Ecuador (IAEN) and the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

This event is focused on the pending cases at the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court on the rights of nature. particularly of important focus is the River Dulcepamba (and the deviation of natural riverbed), the River Piatúa (reduction of ecological water flow), and the Forest of Alto Nangaritza (mining in fragile ecosystems). Each is a vital component in the sum of how ecosystems affect creatures, wildlife, and humanity.

Professor Andreas Gutmann, of the University of Bremen, will be moderating from Germany.

Panelists include:

Hugo Echeverria, Ecuador, external attorney for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

Viviana Morales, Constitutional Law instructor for IAEN

Agustin Grijalva, a former Judge of the Constitutional Court

This webinar is free and open for everyone. Registration is not required. The link to access the webinar may be found here.

Democratic and Environmental Rights-Including the Soil

with Senior Legal Counsel, Thomas Linzey

Presented by the Soil Not Oil Coalition.

This event is Saturday, September 17th, 2022, at 5:00 PM PST/8:00 PM EST.

CDER’s Thomas Linzey will present a keynote presentation at the Soil Not Oil Coalition Gathering.

This conference is focused on practical solutions to climate change, at which attendees will learn about the root causes and effects of climate instability, as well as solutions that can lead us towards climate stability. The conference is open to all, including students, educators, activists, farmers, scientists, investors, policymakers, health providers, families, urban planners, and everyone else concerned about life on earth.

Thomas Linzey serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

To register for the conference, including Thomas’s keynote, please click here.

Ticket pricing ranges from $100-$300.

Reflecting on the Rights of Nature

with CDER’s Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil

Presented by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance in partnership with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

This event is Thursday, September 8th, 2022 at 10:00 AM AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) - which is Wednesday, September 7th at 8:00 PM Eastern/5:00 PM Pacific.

CDER’s Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil are pioneers in the field of environmental law, and in the field of developing laws to protect the Rights of Nature and community rights. They are joining the Australian Earth Laws Alliance as they celebrate Earth Laws Month 2022 to engage in a discussion reflecting on more than 15 years of Rights of Nature activism and legal developments. This webinar is part of a month-long series of webinars, public lectures, workshops, virtual art exhibitions, and more - to explore and celebrate our relationship with the living world.

All are welcome. This virtual event is free. Register for the event here.

Speakers

Thomas Linzey-He serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” movement which has resulted in the adoption of hundreds of municipal laws across the United States. He also sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation. Linzey is a graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

Mari Margil-She serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights and program manager for CDER’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. Margil previously served as the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). In 2008, she served as a consultant to Ecuador’s national Constituent Assembly, helping to draft the world’s first Rights of Nature constitutional provisions. Margil is widely viewed as one of the leading global voices for the recognition of legally enforceable rights of ecosystems and nature. In her role with CDER, Margil works with national, state, and local governments, tribal nations, and indigenous communities in Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Nepal, and elsewhere, to advance legal and policy frameworks regarding Rights of Nature. She has served as the primary drafter of a “Himalayas Bill of Rights” (Nepal) and other groundbreaking legislation.

Peat-Fest 2022

Rights of Peatlands

Presentation Airing August 30th at 9 AM Pacific, 12 PM Eastern, and 6 PM Central European Standard Time (CEST).

Global, Virtual Event - Registration Open!

Peat-Fest 2022 is presented by RE-PEAT.

RE-PEAT is a youth-led collective on a mission to change people’s perceptions of peatlands. They work in a collaborative, creative, and holistic fashion, depicting peatlands themselves in novel ways as well as placing a large focus on the broader context of peatlands.

Peatlands, found around the globe, are wetland ecosystems containing rich, organic matter. Under threat from human development, peatlands are major carbon sinks and critically important for curbing climate changes, and provide habitat for a wide range of species and thus critically important for protecting biodiversity.

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) is thrilled to joined RE-PEAT for Peat-Fest.

This year’s conference theme is the Rights of Peatlands. CDER’s Mari Margil will help open the conference, presenting a session on the growing Rights of Nature movement and strategies for how we can protect the rights of peatlands.

Peatlands are truly ecosystems for our times - requiring impactful tools for ensuring viable ecosystems in the short term, and potentially contributing to transforming our relationship with our natural surroundings going forward. Rights of Nature has the potential to transform our relationship with the natural world by expanding legal systems for the non-human world to provide us with the opportunity to hold corporations and governments accountable.

Peat-Fest 2022 Speakers:

The full lineup of speakers will be available soon and includes:

Mari Margil, Center for Democratic and Environmental and Rights

Radha D’Souza, Professor at University of Westminister Law School

Alistair McIntosh, Scottish writer and environmental activist

Khairani Barokka, writer, poet and artist

Register for the event here.

A New Ecological Constitution for Chile

Conversation on the constitutional process and its effect on international environmental constitutionalism

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 **This event will be in Spanish.

10:00-11:30 AM CDMX, Quito and Bogotá

11:00-12:20 AM Santiago

Moderated by Cristina Lux, lawyer for Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA).

Chile is on the verge of voting on a new Constitution. In environmental terms, the text proposes to change the way we relate to our environment and nature. This new Constitution could be the first Ecological Constitution of the country. On July 5, the Constitutional Convention must propose the text of the new Constitution to the country, which must be voted on September 4 in a national plebiscite.

In this virtual seminar, we will talk with experts who have been involved in the process since its inception. We will also analyze this process from a comparative perspective, and based on the contemporary guidelines of international environmental law. CDER will participate in panel 2, along with FIMA and a representative of the Chilean Constitutional Convention. CDER will share the Ecuadorian experience in recognizing and implementing the rights of nature in its national constitution.

First Panel

New Constitution in Chile: A democratic process in complex times

Claudia Heiss, Political Scientist, Head of the Political Science Program at the Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Chile

Martin Corvera, Director of Projects and Innovation of the Smart Citizenship Foundation

Josefina Correa, Lawyer and political communicator

Second Panel

An Ecological Constitution for Chile

Carolina Palma, Political Scientist, Advocacy Coordinator of the NGO FIMA

Luis Jimenez Caceres, Lawyer, Constituent representative of the Aymara people

Hugo Echeverria, External Attorney, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

Please register for this event HERE.

Bioneers Conference 2022

Panel - Rights of Nature: From Grassroots to Mainstream

Saturday, May 14, 2022

5:45 PM EST/2:45 PM PST

Bioneers presents their latest in-person and virtual conference, A Window Through, from May 13-15, 2022, in San Francisco. Registration is now open!

Join us on the conference main stage, on Saturday, May 14, for a panel titled Rights of Nature: From Grassroots to Mainstream. The panel will include CDER’s Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel, Frank Bibeau, Tribal Attorney of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Samantha Skenandore, Tribal Attorney in Wisconsin. Alexis Bunten is moderating.

For over 15 years, the Rights of Nature movement has been dramatically altering the political framework and standpoint with which we see our world. The Earth may have once been a tool to be used, but society is moving towards a clearer understanding that our planet is its own entity with inherent rights to exist, persist, flourish, and evolve which can now be protected under the law. The Rights of Nature movement itself seeks to protect ecosystems and their life forms through the recognition of such rights. Join us to learn about the latest legal battles in the U.S. from this panel of environmental and tribal attorneys leading the way in the tribal courts and beyond.

All are welcome. For further information on pricing and registration, please visit here.

Registration is required.  Register here.

Attend in-person or virtually.

Saturday, May 14:  5:45 PM Eastern, 2:45 PM Pacific.  

Workshop: Practical Grassroots Campaign Strategy for the Rights of Nature

CDER Executive Director Mari Margil to lead a workshop at Univ. of British Columbia, Allard School of Law

On Friday, May 6, 2022, Mari Margil will be in Vancouver, Canada, to lead an in-person rights of nature training workshop in partnership with the Centre for Law and the Environment (CLE) and the Sustainability Hub at the University of British Columbia, on the traditional ancestral and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation.

The workshop is the capstone of a series of webinars on legal recognition for non-human relatives hosted by the CLE, featuring a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers. The workshop will provide a full day of hands-on training in grassroots campaign strategy for participants who want to take action to advance legal recognition for non-human relations in their own communities.

Participants will receive training materials they can take home. They will explore past successes and failures, campaign goals and tactics, legal options for recognizing non-human relations, interactions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and other issues. They will also have the opportunity to brainstorm and receive feedback on their own efforts to enact or strengthen laws to respect and protect non-human relations.

Registration is open to anyone with an interest in the subject. Spaces are limited. Cost is CAD$100 for private sector participants, PWYC for everyone else. A small number of travel subsidies are available for Indigenous and civil society participants.

The workshop will be preceded the day before (May 5) with some special, optional, outdoor activities organized by the UBC Sustainability Hub to explore Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to nature. This side event is free of charge and will require separate registration.

Rights of Nature Presentation with CORE and Community Shares of Wisconsin

May 4, 2022 12:00 PM CST

Our nation has been built on the concept that corporations have legal personhood and constitutional rights, but the United States has never granted the same rights to nature. However, through grassroots and nonprofit efforts local communities, countries, and tribal nations have established laws to recognize and protect the legal rights of nature.

Community Shares of Wisconsin and CORE invite you to an informational session on the Rights of Nature movement on Wednesday, May 4 from 12:00-1:00 pm CST. on Zoom. We will discuss this movement in detail with Guy Reiter, the executive director of Menīkānaehkem, and Mari Margil, the executive director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

The Rights of Nature movement reflects a growing understanding that nature deserves our respect, protection, and legal rights. Register in advance for our Zoom conversation.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

First Rights of Salmon Case Goes to Tribal Court 

Sauk-Suiattle Tribe v. City of Seattle

Wednesday, March 30

7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) and our partner Menīkānaehkem are pleased to present and co-sponsor this webinar on the first “rights of salmon” case to be brought in a tribal court.  

Jack Fiander, Tribal Attorney for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, and Thomas Linzey, CDER’s Senior Legal Counsel, will present.  

The case, filed by the Tribe on its own behalf and on behalf of Tsuladx (salmon in the Tribe’s language), was filed in Sauk-Suiattle Tribal Court.

The Tribe seeks a ruling from the Tribal Court that salmon have inherent rights to “exist, flourish, regenerate…and restoration,” and that the Tribe possesses the duty to “protect and save” salmon in the face of continued harm and decline, including from Seattle’s dams on the Skagit River.  

This case comes as several tribal nations, as well as communities within the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, and countries including Ecuador and Bangladesh, have recognized the legal rights of nature through lawmaking and court rulings.  In August 2021, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, in Minnesota, became the first tribe to bring a case to enforce the legal rights of nature in a tribal court.

Read our recent press release on the Sauk-Suiattle lawsuit.  

Join us on March 30 to learn more about this case and growing efforts by tribal nations to advance their rights to protect nature and the rights of nature.   

All are welcome.  Tribal attorneys, officials, and members, and anyone interested in this important case, and its possible application in other locations, are encouraged to attend. 

The event is free.  Registration is required.  Register here.

Wednesday, March 30:  7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific.  

For more information:  info@centerforenvironmentalrights.org

Law Seminars International Presents:

Tribal Use of Rights of Nature Legal Theories in Tribal Courts to Protect Salmon and Other Natural Resources

March 25, 2022

12 PM EST/9 AM PST

Earn CLE credits at Law Seminars International’s latest virtual conference: Tribal Water in the Pacific Northwest: Major new developments affecting Tribal water rights and quality March 24 and 25.

On March 25, a panel, titled - Tribal Use of Rights of Nature Legal Theories in Tribal Courts to Protect Salmon and Other Natural Resources - will feature CDER’s Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel, along with partners Jack Fiander, Tribal Attorney for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, and Frank Bibeau, Tribal Attorney of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe.

Attendees will learn about the new tribal court case on the rights of salmon, Sauk-Siuattle Indian Tribe vs. the City of Seattle - as well as the August 2021 case filed by the White Earth Band of Ojibwe to protect the rights of manoomin (wild rice), the first tribe to bring a case to enforce the legal rights of nature in a tribal court.

All are welcome. Attorneys, Tribal, local, state, and federal governmental representatives, environmental professionals, business executives, water users, and their representatives will all benefit and are encouraged to attend. 

The event cost is $895 with a group rate of $805 each for two or more registrants from the same group. Government employees are offered a special rate of $670. Discounted pricing for tribal members, public interest NGO's, students, and people in their job for less than a year, is $447.50. All rates include admission to all program sessions and course materials of the conference.  Registration is required.  Register here.

This presentation is virtual.

Friday, March 25:  12 pm Eastern, 9 am Pacific.  

Monday, August 16, 2021

12:00pm Eastern / 9:00am Pacific

Watch live! CDER’s Ecuador Attorney Hugo Echeverria will testify before the Commission on Biodiversity and Natural Resources of Ecuador’s National Assembly, on revisions to the national mining law to protect and enforce the #rightsofnature

Watch on Facebook Live:  https://www.facebook.com/ComisionBiodiversidad/