OpEdNews » Ecuador Constitution Recognizes 'Rights of Nature'

Support OEN
With Your
Tax-Deductible Donation

Tags for This Article:

Populum Tag Cloud Control Panel
	Fine tune your search to access content

Articles	Links
Diaries	Products
Events	All

All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs

From:
Month Day Year

To:
Month Day Year

Alphabet Popularity	Count ON Count OFF
This Level	Sub-levels

Tag(s): Chevron; College; Democratic Socialists; Ecosystems; Ecuador; Education; Environmentalism; Mothers; Nature; Obama-Barack; (more...) Oil; Oil Spills And Environmental Disasters; Pensions; Poverty; Rafael Correa (less...)
Add to My Group

September 30, 2008 at 12:50:12

Headlined on 9/30/08:
Ecuador Constitution Recognizes 'Rights of Nature'

by Rady Ananda Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

SAVE FAVORITES

VIEW FAVORITES

4 3 2 View Ratings | Rate It

On Sunday, two-thirds of the voters in Ecuador approved a new constitution that is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights. It also provides for pensions for stay-at-home mothers and free education for all through college. With over one-third of the nation living in poverty, the constitutional changes are expected to alleviate suffering with short and long-term solutions.

SFGate reports that the new Constitution also broadens President Rafael Correa's powers, letting him run for two more consecutive terms, and allowing him to consolidate the 'citizen's revolution.' Correa is expected to swiftly overhaul the judiciary, the Central Bank and other key institutions, giving the U.S.- and European-trained economist greater liberty to fashion what he calls a 'new political model.' Correa has not, however, nationalized telecommunications or electric utility companies.

According to a report by Cyril Mychalejko, the new constitution gives nature the "right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution" and mandates that the government take "precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles." Mychalejko continues:

Ecuador's leadership on this issue just may have a global domino effect as the [Community Environmental Legal] Defense Fund is now fielding calls from other countries such as Nepal, which is currently writing its first constitution. This could begin to make neoliberal development models obsolete and have a tremendous impact on multinational corporations, especially those in the extractive industries, from entering new markets and conducting "business as usual".
"I expect them to fight it," said the Defense Fund's [Mari] Margil. "Their bread and butter is being able to treat countries and ecosystems like cheap hotels. Multinational corporations are dependent on ravaging the planet in order to increase their bottom line."

The class-action lawsuit in Ecuador against Chevron is a testament to Margil's forecast. Tens of thousands of Ecuadorians accuse the California-based company of dumping millions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon (when it was formerly Texaco), and as a result causing massive environmental destruction and widespread health problems. Chevron, which could be forced to pay as much as $16 billion, refuses to take responsibility and calls the action a "shakedown."

"The ultimate issue here is Ecuador has mistreated a U.S. company," a Chevron lobbyist who asked not to be identified told Newsweek in July. "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this-companies that have made big investments around the world."

Chevron is lobbying Congress to squeeze Ecuador on the issue by threatening to withhold the renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act. Chevron took similar measures in 2006 by lobbying for the exclusion of Ecuador from Andean Free Trade Agreement negotiations as retribution for the lawsuit--something Democratic Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticized at the time in a letter to then U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman.

Jorge Daniel Taillant, President of the Center for Human Rights and Environment (in Argentina), recently wrote that, "The crude reality of the Chevron lobbyist comment, brings home what few politicians or oil industry representatives want to admit, that our societies have been unsuccessful in properly balancing our need for oil and containing the negative impacts that this industry has on our natural and social environment."

(Read more for an excellent discussion of what Mychalejko calls "populist greenwashing.")

The successful lobbying efforts of the Pachamama Alliance prompted the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly to invite the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund to assist in developing and drafting provisions for the new constitution to put ecosystem rights directly into the Ecuadorian constitution, based on ordinances developed and adopted by U.S. municipalities.

"Ecuador is now the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights," stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of CELDF. "With this vote, the people of Ecuador are leading the way for countries around the world to fundamentally change how we protect nature," added Mari Margil, Associate Director.

CELDF, founded in 1995, explains that most laws legalize environmental harms by regulating how much pollution or destruction of nature can occur. Rather than preventing pollution and environmental destruction, these laws instead codify it.

The Pachamama Alliance works to preserve the Earth's tropical rainforests by empowering the indigenous people who are its natural custodians. Through educational programs and organized tours to the Andes, it raises awareness of an indigenous worldview that seeks to preserve ecodiversity. The Alliance recognizes that:

"The destruction of the world's rainforests is driven by a complex web of social and economic forces, many of these a logical result of modern society's worldview -- a view that, although rich in technological insight, is often ignorant of the value of nature's apparently free and limitless services. It is a view guided by maximum short-term financial gain while disregarding the long-term costs of ecological degradation. It is a worldview in which tropical forests can show up as a cash crop to be harvested rather than as an irreplaceable ecosystem to be protected."

Ecuador sits on the western edge of South America, at the equator. Darwin's famous Galapagos Islands, not pictured in the map below, lie 700 miles from the coastal town of Manta.

	Contact Author
	Contact Editor
	View Other Articles by Author

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

(More...)

12 comments

Student of history, religion, exoteric and esoteric, the Humanities in general and advocate for peace, justice and the unity of humankind, not through force, but through self-realization and mutual respect. I have also just come out with my first book, a combination of poetry, photography and essays entitled "Post Katrina Blues", my reflections on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans two years after Katrina struck, published by San Francisco Bay Press.
Mac McKinneyStudent of history, religion, exoteric and esoteric, the Humanities in general and advocate for peace, justice and the unity of humankind, not through force, but through self-realization and mutual respect. I have also just come out with my first book, a combination of poetry, photography and essays entitled "Post Katrina Blues", my reflections on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans two years after Katrina struck, published by San Francisco Bay Press.

A Paradigm Shift Beginning

Now this is a remarkable development, a paradigm shift starting to happen in South America to a relationship of respect with Mother Nature. If humanity is to survive the ominous threats of global warming, toxic pollution and the exhaustion of vast amounts of resources, this a tremendous moment in the struggle for survival. Now we need two, three, many countries to embrace this paradigm. I imagine that other countries with large indigenous Indian populations, where there is still a deeper repoire with Nature, will be the next to legislate the Rights of Nature. We should do all we can to encourage this everywhere.

The reverse of embarking upon this course, that is, maintaining the present course, is to see Mother Nature turn into our worst nightmare.

by Mac McKinney (47 articles, 75 quicklinks, 176 diaries, 1128 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 7:55:17 PM

Geery lived off the grid for 15 years in an earth-sheltered, solar heated home, while his kids learned in school that solar energy isn't feasible. NAPTA hosts a page on Geery's foibles in education, and explains how he got his butt fired from a tenured teaching position. Here's a short clip of his most recent solar contraption; for more on that project, and Geery's contention that the Wright Brothers took a wrong turn, please visit his airship page (hyperblimp.com). Apparently, Geery is the only...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Daniel GeeryGeery lived off the grid for 15 years in an earth-sheltered, solar heated home, while his kids learned in school that solar energy isn't feasible. NAPTA hosts a page on Geery's foibles in education, and explains how he got his butt fired from a tenured teaching position. Here's a short clip of his most recent solar contraption; for more on that project, and Geery's contention that the Wright Brothers took a wrong turn, please visit his airship page (hyperblimp.com). Apparently, Geery is the only...

to see more of bio, click on member name

This is the most encouraging article...

that I've read in a long time.

It so often appears that a paradigm shift is just beneath the surface; here is an instance where it is actually erupting.

by Daniel Geery (26 articles, 73 quicklinks, 123 diaries, 742 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 8:18:50 PM

In 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists. Focused mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a legal investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.

All material offered here is the property of Rady A...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Rady AnandaIn 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists. Focused mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a legal investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.

All material offered here is the property of Rady A...

to see more of bio, click on member name

hope for humanity; we do have sanity!

Thanks, Daniel and Mac ~

this makes me wanna move south...

by Rady Ananda (124 articles, 283 quicklinks, 36 diaries, 1061 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 9:13:42 PM

I'm an anti-civilizationist and election boycott advocate in San Diego. For reasons not to vote in faith-based elections with secret vote counts for candidates you cannot hold accountable if they fail to represent you, check out the discussions, articles, and videos on my website http://noinnovember.ning.com
Mark E. SmithI'm an anti-civilizationist and election boycott advocate in San Diego. For reasons not to vote in faith-based elections with secret vote counts for candidates you cannot hold accountable if they fail to represent you, check out the discussions, articles, and videos on my website http://noinnovember.ning.com

Protect the planet!

Hooray for Ecuador!

And what is the U.S. government doing? Why spending billions on death and destruction as usual. The argument in Congress isn't about whether or not to shore up an unsustainable neoliberal system that is wrecking humanity's only habitat, but how much to steal and who to give it to. Only among the people do you hear, "No bailout!" and "No war!" but unlike Ecuador, in America the people do not have a voice in government or a Constitution that ensures our inalienable rights and the rights of the landbase that allows us to survive.

There is a model. Let's hope that the economy collapses and we can start over and do things right this time.

Americans wrongly believe that automobiles are freedom, when all they do is turn entire cities into asphyxiation chambers. Fresh air, clean water, and basic human economic rights constitute freedom. The "freedom" of millionaires to become billionaires is the "freedom" of the middle class to lose their homes and sleep in the streets. Unfortunately there are still some whose jobs haven't yet been outsourced and whose homes haven't yet been repossessed, and who will have to learn the hard way.

I've been watching them show up at the senior center for subsidized meals for years, the newly-poor but formerly-prosperous. And while some are decent people, some are the most whiny, snivelling, ungrateful, excuses for humanity imaginable. Some of them still believe their old misconceptions and continue to vote and rail against the very social programs that they themselves are now relying upon for survival. Neoliberals, in my opinion, are braindead and they want to destroy the planet to make it over in their own image. ;)

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 8:55:01 PM

doom and gloom

let's split, Mark... enough of this insane country

do you speak spanish?

by Rady Ananda (124 articles, 283 quicklinks, 36 diaries, 1061 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 9:18:18 PM

Si, como no!

Lived in Mexico five years and another five in Honduras.

I'd be south of the border still if I hadn't run out of tourist visas and been unable to afford a residence visa.

Soon as I hit the lottery, nos vamos!

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 10:54:38 PM

whatever, yadda yadda yadda
shadow dancerwhatever, yadda yadda yadda

Rights Of Nature

The Hopi prophecies state this land will pretty much be burned off the face of the earth by man made fire that they now consider to be the modern day weapons man has invented. If this doesn't occur then mathematically the human race will pretty much destroy themselves through their destruction of the earth if left to their own devices.

The prophecies of most all people(s) state towards the end of age this world will pretty much be an insane asylum until God/Creator puts an end to these things.

by shadow dancer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 68 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 9:37:59 PM

Sounds right, Shadow Dancer.

But make that woman-made weapons. Nuclear fission was discovered by a woman, Prof. Lise Meitner, who had doctorates in both math and physics and was one of only a dozen or so people in Einstein's inner circle who understood his theories at the time. Since women weren't allowed in the Kaiser Wilhem University laboratories, Meitner partnered up with Otto Hahn, a guy who had never studied math or physics but had the requisite genitalia to score a lab. Meitner designed, oversaw, and interpreted their experiments, and Hahn, who would otherwise have been a paint chemist, carried them out. Hahn hadn't studied math because it wasn't necessary for chemists at the time--atomic theory hadn't yet been accepted. Meitner studied with Bohr.

Meitner came within a hair's breadth of being forced into prostitution and/or turned into a bar of soap or a lampshade when Hitler came to power, but other scientists helped Meitner escape to Sweden. I believe that it was her personal experience of being a genius in a world full of morons who treated her with contempt, and of understanding that it is impossible to reason with jackbooted fascist thugs, that led Meitner to persuade Einstein, who was reluctant to give the secret to a fascist country, to give fission to the United States.

After the war, Hahn, who had been a German war criminal, got the credit for Meitner's discovery and the Nobel Prize, while Meitner died in relative obscurity, unable to obtain grants to look for ways to safely dispose of radioactive wastes.

Although the U.S. physics establishment says that Meitner only discovered the mathematical basis for fission, there was no other basis. Many people had repeated the same experiment with the same result, but because they couldn't interpret it properly, it was useless. The Germans, including Hahn, could have repeated that experiment for another hundred years without figuring out the mathematical basis for fission. Some knew physics but not math. Some knew math but not physics. Some knew both but weren't familiar with Einstein's theories. And none had Meitner's genius.

Later on, when people tried to credit him for being the Father of the Bomb, Einstein said that there was no father of the bomb, there was a mother of the bomb, Lise Meitner.

I believe that it was patriarchy that turned us into an ecologically nonviable species with the cyclical overpopulation peaks and subsequent die-offs of any nonviable species. I believe that we originally had the potential and the capacity to limit our reproduction rate in accordance with available resources the way that all ecologically viable species do and that some indigenous peoples still do. All nonviable species eventually die off completely, poisoned in their own wastes, as we will unless there is an end to patriarchy. But after 5,000 years of patriarchy, Meitner, who may have been the first in her female line to achieve literacy in all those millenia, understood, I believe, the cycle and the needless suffering it causes.

Patriarchal religions and societies believe that the male war gods they worship killed the Goddess. But deities are immortal and cannot be killed. I believe that it was the mercy of the Goddess that gave Meitner the key to ending our suffering more quickly and that the First Nation prophecies are correct and this will be our last cycle.

But there can be miracles. Obviously not everyone in Ecuador is insane yet. Wherever indigenous peoples have not been totally slaughtered, there are pockets of sanity. Unfortunately the radiation from depleted uranium has spread all over the earth and cannot be cleaned up. And we do not have another Meitner to figure out how, even if it could be done, nor would a contemporary Meitner be allowed the necessary grants and labs and staff that Meitner was denied. In the U.S. a female of Meitner's genius caliber would probably have been denied similar educational opportunities and, being obviously much too intelligent to make a suitably docile house slave, been trafficked into a brothel. Patriarchy is only interested in killing and exploiting, not in saving lives.

But there are exceptions like Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, the Zapatistas, and many isolated remnants of indigenous peoples worldwide. However I think the prophecies are correct, and that even if they could, which they can't, it is too late for the neoliberals to apologize and change their ways. They have no traditions of equality, only of hierarchy, so they can't even imagine it possible. "This," they will tell you in all seriousness, "is how the world is," and they are oblivious to the fact that this is not how the world is, but the way that their mindless cruelty has left it.

Even some indigenous nations do not understand that there are not two kinds of people, male and female, but only one kind of person, the human kind, or humankind, and that if we cannot be kind, we have no right to call ourselves human, nor to coexist with species that have sincere feelings and empathy, or to parasitize and destroy the habitat to which they by virtue of their ability to feel and care, have a right that we do not.

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 11:49:38 PM

Rolland (Ron) Miller is a free enterprise socialist leaning financier in his mid 60's currently working as a Realtor at Re/Max in Powell River, Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada. I moved here for quality of life in 2004 from Vancouver where I was born and carried on my financing and consulting business of large Residential and Commercial Real Estate projects across Canada, USA, and China since 1974 after excelling in the corporate world as a lender. I believe balance is the key word.
Rolland MillerRolland (Ron) Miller is a free enterprise socialist leaning financier in his mid 60's currently working as a Realtor at Re/Max in Powell River, Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada. I moved here for quality of life in 2004 from Vancouver where I was born and carried on my financing and consulting business of large Residential and Commercial Real Estate projects across Canada, USA, and China since 1974 after excelling in the corporate world as a lender. I believe balance is the key word.

Ecuador Constitution Recognizes 'Rights of Nature

Bravo for Ecuador, and nature which we all are part of.

A story that needs to be told to the world, and how much it means to the survival of the planet.

A good news story, that gives a much better chance of balancing the demands of a modern society. Bring nature back into our lives.

Profit must not be all there is.

by Rolland Miller (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 87 comments) on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 2:56:15 AM

American Expat in Asia
pftAmerican Expat in Asia

Earth to Klingons

Stand by for the following message. "Intelligent life on Earth is confirmed to be extinguished except among a few members of the ruling elite. Permission requested to end observation of this species and return home. End message. Awaiting instructions."

Seriously, this gives the government complete powers to do anything so long as they say it is to save nature. Nature has more rights than man under this legislation.

Then there is this.

"Correa is expected to swiftly overhaul the judiciary, the Central Bank and other key institutions, giving the U.S.- and European-trained economist greater liberty to fashion what he calls a 'new political model.'"

by pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 499 comments) on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 3:17:13 AM

Nature Should Have More Rights

Nature should have more rights than man. We are visitors to her garden in the first place. Look at where the opposite paradigm has gotten us.

by Mac McKinney (47 articles, 75 quicklinks, 176 diaries, 1128 comments) on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 5:44:01 AM

rights as a frame

I totally agree with you, Mac, that 'nature should have more rights' - a successful frame. My thinking would word it differently, but resulting in the same behavior (protect that which sustains us).

What's interesting is that the paradigm shift occurred because of how the argument was framed - that of 'rights' vs. 'priority' or plain sanity. Of course we have to protect that which sustains us - but that frame never resulted in measurable success.

The term 'rights' as in 'unalienable rights' strikes a deep chord in people around the world - 200+ years later.

It will be interesting to watch what Correa actually does. his western econ education does worry me; and he has not nationalized what are clearly nationally owned resources. How he handles Chevron will be most interesting...that seems to be where the real battleline is.

by Rady Ananda (124 articles, 283 quicklinks, 36 diaries, 1061 comments) on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 8:54:10 AM

12 comments

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/opednews/public_html/maxwrite/database.inc.php on line 48

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/opednews/public_html/maxwrite/database.inc.php on line 48

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/opednews/public_html/maxwrite/database.inc.php on line 48

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/opednews/public_html/maxwrite/database.inc.php on line 48

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/opednews/public_html/maxwrite/database.inc.php on line 48