Global Forum: Rights of Nature and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment in Dialogue

Recordings of each panel are now available!

The Global Forum, held on October 1-2, 2020, featured experts from around the world – including Ecuador, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, India, the United States, and from tribal nations – discussing the relationship between the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment. 

One-hour panel sessions focused on how these legal rights are advancing in the Americas, with tribal nations, in Asia and Oceania, and elsewhere. All panel sessions are available below.

Latin America

In this panel session, Mari Margil of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights moderates a discussion with Ecuador attorney Hugo Echeverria and Professor Daniel Bonilla of la Universidad de los Andes in Colombia on developments in Latin America.

First Nations

In this panel session, Thomas Linzey of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights moderates a discussion with Geneva E. B. Thompson, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and Associate General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe in the Office of the Tribal Attorney, and Elizabeth Kronk Warner, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Dean of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

Oceania

In this panel session, Professor Erin Daly of Widener University Delaware Law School and Dignity Rights International moderates a discussion with Michelle Maloney, National Coordinator of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and an Associate at the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, and Catherine Iorns Magallanes, Professor of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Asia

In this panel session, Mari Margil of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights moderates a discussion with Shrishtee Bajpai of Kalpavriksh in India, and Manzill Murshid, attorney and founder of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

Europe

In this panel session, Professor James May of Widener University Delaware Law School and the Global Environmental Rights Institute moderates a discussion with Professor Nicholas Robinson of Pace University's School of Law, and Rebecka Le Moine, an elected Member of Parliament in Sweden.

North America & Closing Remarks

This features the panel session on North America, as well as closing remarks from Professor Erin Daly of Widener University Delaware Law School and Dignity Rights International. The panel on North America features moderator Thomas Linzey of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, and panelists Linda Sheehan of Environment Now and Chuck O'Neal of the Florida Rights of Nature Network.

Co-Hosts

CDER_HOR_RGB_Cedar-01.jpg

Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER)

Global Environmental Rights Institute at Widener University Delaware Law School

Global Environmental Rights Institute at
Widener University Delaware Law School

Dignity Rights International

 Presenters

Shrishtee Bajpai  India Kalpavriksh Vikalp Sangam Global Tapestry of Alternatives Shrishtee Bajpai is a member of Kalpavriksh, an environment action group that began in 1979 with focus on environment awareness, campaigns, litigation, and

Shrishtee Bajpai 

India

Kalpavriksh
Vikalp Sangam
Global Tapestry of Alternatives
Shrishtee Bajpai is a member of Kalpavriksh, an environment action group that began in 1979 with focus on environment awareness, campaigns, litigation, and research. Kalpavriksh has a long history of being active with social-environment movements and supporting communities who have been challenging the dominant development discourse that thrives on the destruction of nature. She joined Kalpavriksh in 2016. Her research is focused on documenting, researching, and networking on radical alternatives to dominant systems of statism, capitalism, patriarchy, and other forms of concentration of power, focusing on exploring indigenous, traditional, and customary ways of living, decision-making systems, and their underlying worldviews. She has been researching the Rights of Nature in South Asia, and helped organize the dialogue on Rights of Rivers in South Asia in New Delhi in March. She did her Masters degree in Development Studies. 

Daniel Bonilla Colombia Full Professor of Law, Universidad de los Andes Daniel Bonilla holds an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale Law School and a law degree from Universidad de los Andes. He has been a visiting professor or lecturer at a number

Daniel Bonilla

Colombia

Full Professor of Law, Universidad de los Andes
Daniel Bonilla holds an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale Law School and a law degree from Universidad de los Andes. He has been a visiting professor or lecturer at a number of institutions, including Sciences Po-Paris, Yale Law School, Fordham Law School, Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, University of Texas School of Law, University of Brasilia, University of Brescia, Georgia State University College of Law, and Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and several awards for excellence in teaching.

Erin Daly United States Interim Dean, Widener University Delaware Law School Executive Director, Dignity Rights International Erin Daly is Professor of Law at Widener University Delaware Law School. She is the Executive Director of Dignit

Erin Daly

United States

Interim Dean, Widener University Delaware Law School
Executive Director, Dignity Rights International

Erin Daly is Professor of Law at Widener University Delaware Law School. She is the Executive Director of Dignity Rights International, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the dignity of every person, everywhere. She serves as the Director of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment, as the U.S. National Correspondent for the Centre international de droit comparé de l’environnement (CIDCE), and as the Vice President for Institutional Development at the UNIFA in Haiti. She is the author of Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person (2d ed. 2020) and the co-author of Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground (2010).

Hugo Echeverria Ecuador Attorney Hugo Echeverria is an Attorney at Law and Doctor of Jurisprudence granted by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Quito, Ecuador. He also holds a Master of Laws (LLM) granted by McGill University in Montreal,

Hugo Echeverria

Ecuador

Attorney
Hugo Echeverria is an Attorney at Law and Doctor of Jurisprudence granted by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Quito, Ecuador. He also holds a Master of Laws (LLM) granted by McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is an alumnus of the Chevening Fellowship Program, directed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on Environmental Governance at Wolverhampton University in the United Kingdom. Echeverria has worked in environmental law since 2001, with an emphasis on biodiversity conservation, the environmental rule of law, and the Rights of Nature, areas in which he practices as an attorney and a consultant. He also lectures on environmental law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where he currently lectures in Environmental Law. He is the author of Tutela judicial efectiva en material ambiental, the first book in Ecuador examining environmental due process from a constitutional perspective. He is the author of the first Amicus Curiae submitted at the National Court of Justice, in a case regarding wildlife crime, as well as an Amicus Curiae submitted at the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, in the first case selected by the Court to issue binding jurisprudence on Rights of Nature.

Catherine Iorns Magallanes New Zealand Professor of Law, Victoria University of Wellington Catherine Iorns Magallanes is a Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She has more than 25 years of experience on Ind

Catherine Iorns Magallanes

New Zealand

Professor of Law, Victoria University of Wellington
Catherine Iorns Magallanes is a Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She has more than 25 years of experience on Indigenous rights, environmental law, international law, and statutory interpretation, and has received awards for her environmental law teaching and research. Professor Iorns is also the Academic Adviser to the New Zealand Council of Legal Education, a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and a Board member of the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies.

Elizabeth Kronk Warner Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Dean, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah Elizabeth Kronk Warner is Dean and Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Dean K

Elizabeth Kronk Warner

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Dean, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Elizabeth Kronk Warner is Dean and Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Dean Kronk Warner was formerly Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was also the Director of the Tribal Law and Government Center. Kronk Warner is a nationally recognized expert in the intersection of environmental and Indian law. Kronk Warner has co-authored several books, and has 40 articles and book chapters to her credit. Kronk Warner, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, served as an appellate judge for the Tribe and as a district judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe.

Rebecka Le Moine Sweden Member of Parliament (Riksdag) Rebecka Le Moine is a member of the Green Party and spokesperson for Biodiversity. She has been awarded the “environmental hero” by the WWF and the King of Sweden, for taking the initia

Rebecka Le Moine

Sweden

Member of Parliament (Riksdag)
Rebecka Le Moine is a member of the Green Party and spokesperson for Biodiversity. She has been awarded the “environmental hero” by the WWF and the King of Sweden, for taking the initiative to celebrate the U.N. biodiversity day in Sweden. With a Master’s degree in conservation biology and a background as a biology consultant, her biggest concern is to find political solutions to tackle the mass extinction of our fellow species. Therefore, she is working to change our basic values, where animals and Nature also have legal rights.

Thomas Linzey, Esq. United States Senior Legal Counsel, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights Thomas Linzey serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He is the co-founder of the Communit

Thomas Linzey, Esq.

United States

Senior Legal Counsel, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Thomas Linzey 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 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. He is the author of Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community (Gibbs-Smith 2009), the author of On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability (PM Press 2016), and the co-author of We the People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the United States (PM Press 2016). He was featured in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tree Media’s film 11th Hour and We the People 2.0. He assisted the Ecuadorian constituent assembly in 2008 to adopt the world’s first constitution recognizing the independently enforceable Rights of Nature, and his work has been featured widely, including in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, and the Nation magazine.

Michelle Maloney, Ph.D. Australia National Coordinator, Australian Earth Laws Alliance Associate, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights Dr. Michelle Maloney is a lawyer and advocate for Earth-centred law and governance. She holds a

Michelle Maloney, Ph.D.

Australia

National Coordinator, Australian Earth Laws Alliance
Associate, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Dr. Michelle Maloney is a lawyer and advocate for Earth-centred law and governance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a Ph.D. in Law from Griffith University. She is co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and in this role she works to promote the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred governance in Australia – with a focus on law, economics, ethics, education, Indigenous partnerships, and the arts. She has edited two books and written dozens of articles and chapters about Earth laws and the Rights of Nature. She has thirty years of experience designing and managing climate change, sustainability, and environmental justice projects in Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and the U.S., including ten years working with Indigenous colleagues in Central Queensland on a range of community development, sustainability, and cultural heritage projects. Maloney chairs the Australian Peoples’ Tribunal for Community and Nature’s Rights (the APT), manages the Australian Centre for the Rights of Nature, and is on the Steering Group for the Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA). She also co-chairs the Pacific Ocean Rights Network.

Mari Margil United States Executive Director, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights Mari Margil serves as Executive Director for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. Margil previously served as the Associate Director o

Mari Margil

United States

Executive Director, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Mari Margil serves as Executive Director for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. Margil previously served as the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. 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. Margil works with national, state, and local governments, NGOs, and tribal nations in the U.S., 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. Her writing has been featured in The Guardian, YES! Magazine, Earth Island Journal, Democracy Journal, World Policy Journal, In These Times, and Common Dreams. Margil received her Master’s degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and is a co-author of The Bottom Line or Public Health (Oxford University Press 2010) and Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence (Wakefield Press 2011).

James R. May United States Professor, Widener University Delaware Law School James R. May is Distinguished Professor of Law at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he served as the H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law, and fo

James R. May

United States

Professor, Widener University Delaware Law School
James R. May is Distinguished Professor of Law at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he served as the H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law, and founded the Global Environmental Rights Institute. He was the inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer at Widener University, Pennsylvania. He is the President of Dignity Rights International, serves as the Special Representative on Environmental and Nature Rights for the International Council of Environmental Law, and as a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and the Normandy Chair for Peace. May is the author of Modern Administrative Law, editor of Principles of Constitutional Environmental Law (2013), and coeditor of Standards of Environmental Rights (2019) and Shale Gas and the Future of Energy (2016).

Manzill Murshid Bangladesh Attorney, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh Advocate Manzill Murshid founded the organization Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) in 2004. He is a lawyer, and has brought many cases before the Banglades

Manzill Murshid

Bangladesh

Attorney, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh
Advocate Manzill Murshid founded the organization Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) in 2004. He is a lawyer, and has brought many cases before the Bangladesh Supreme Court. He has filed more than 300 Public Interest Litigation cases to protect human rights, archeology, environment, and the rule of law. His work is helping to develop the institutional facilities necessary in Bangladesh to strengthen constitutional governance, democracy, peace, protection of journalists, and the rule of law for the implementation of human rights and protection of nature. In 2015, Murshid was awarded the National Environment Award by the Government of Bangladesh. Recently, he argued the 2019 landmark case in Bangladesh in which all rivers in the country were declared to possess legal rights. The Supreme Court upheld this ruling in a 2020 decision.

Chuck O'Neal United States Co-Founder, Florida Rights of Nature Network Chuck O’Neal is the co-founder of the Florida Rights of Nature Network (FRONN), a statewide Florida organization dedicated to recognizing the legal rights of waterways ac

Chuck O'Neal

United States

Co-Founder, Florida Rights of Nature Network
Chuck O’Neal is the co-founder of the Florida Rights of Nature Network (FRONN), a statewide Florida organization dedicated to recognizing the legal rights of waterways across the state. In 2019, he was the primary sponsor of the “Right to Clean Water Initiative” in Orange County, Florida, to recognize rights of the Wekiva River, Econlockhatchee River, and other waterways within the County. The initiative was selected by the Orange County Charter Review Commission for placement onto the November 2020 ballot. It will be the first Rights of Nature initiative to appear on a Florida ballot, and would become the first Rights of Nature law to be adopted within the State of Florida if passed by the voters of the County. O’Neal has led a variety of environmental campaigns across Florida, including the statewide effort to stop the black bear hunt. He ran for the Florida Senate in 2016, and served as Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and as First Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Florida. In 2015, he won the Cox Conserves Hero award as a leading conservation advocate in Central Florida. He is a graduate of Duke University.

Nicholas A. Robinson United States University Professor for the Environment, Pace University Executive Governor of the International Council of Environmental Law Nicholas A. Robinson is Kerlin Professor of Environmental Law Emeritus at the

Nicholas A. Robinson

United States

University Professor for the Environment, Pace University
Executive Governor of the International Council of Environmental Law
Nicholas A. Robinson is Kerlin Professor of Environmental Law Emeritus at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where he founded its environmental law program in 1978. He participated in the drafting of the U.N. World Charter for Nature and chaired the Environmental Law Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He is an Honorary Vice President of the Sierra Club, and formerly served on its board of directors. He is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law and Brown University.

Linda Sheehan United States Executive Director, Environment Now As Executive Director of Environment Now, Linda Sheehan guides efforts to protect California's coastal, freshwater, and forest ecosystems. Prior to Environment Now, Linda was a

Linda Sheehan

United States

Executive Director, Environment Now
As Executive Director of Environment Now, Linda Sheehan guides efforts to protect California's coastal, freshwater, and forest ecosystems. Prior to Environment Now, Linda was a consultant to philanthropies and state agencies, and served at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation as Senior Counsel. She implemented nature’s rights programs as Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Earth Law Center, led the California Coastkeeper Alliance as Executive Director, and oversaw the Ocean Conservancy’s work as Pacific Region Director. Sheehan has published extensively, taught nature’s rights at Vermont Law School, and recommended rights-based climate strategies through TEDx. She holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.P.P. and J.D. from University of California, Berkeley.

Geneva E. B. Thompson Cherokee Nation Associate General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe Office of the Tribal Attorney Geneva E. B. Thompson (she/her/hers) is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, associate general counsel for the Yurok Tribe, board

Geneva E. B. Thompson

Cherokee Nation

Associate General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe Office of the Tribal Attorney
Geneva E. B. Thompson (she/her/hers) is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, associate general counsel for the Yurok Tribe, board member of the National Native American Bar Association, and delegate to the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Assembly. She attended the University of California Los Angeles School of Law where she received her J.D. and specializations in critical race studies and public interest law. Her legal practice includes environmental and cultural resource protection, advocacy, and litigation in tribal, state, and federal forums. She is also the primary author of the Yurok Tribe’s Rights of the Klamath River Resolution and Ordinance.

The Global Forum is proud to be part of the Environmental Rights Forum 2020-21 presented by the Global Environmental Rights Institute at Widener University Delaware Law School.

 Sponsors