A Brazilian city approves the first law that guarantees rights to a river – 06/23/2023 – Brazil

2023-06-23 15:58:00

~~”The intrinsic rights of the Laje river are recognized as a living entity and subject to rights, and of all other bodies of water and living beings that naturally exist in it or with whom it interacts, including human beings, considering that they are interrelated in an interconnected, integrated and interdependent system”. This is how the Municipal Council of Guajará-Mirim, Roraima, defined the Laje river in the first law in Brazil that recognizes the legal rights of a river.

According to the new municipal legislation, the river has the right to “maintain its natural flow”, “to nourish” and “be nourished”, “to exist with its physicochemical conditions appropriate to its ecological balance” and to interact with human beings whenever deal with “their spiritual, leisure, artisanal, agroecological and cultural fishing practices”.

The author of the proposal was the councilor of the Brazilian Socialist Party Francisco Oro Waram, leader of the Waram village, located in the region of the Lage river. Called Komi-Memen by the indigenous people, the Amazon River flows into the Madeira, which in turn feeds the Amazon.

The granting of these prerogatives to the river follows a trend of recognizing nature itself as the holder of rights, going beyond the regulation of its exploitation by human beings. The thesis is based on the principle that the environment has rights inherent to its existence, which must be recognized in legislation as well as those of citizens.

Translated by José Alberto Gutiérrez

Lea he Original article.