Seminar tilte: Courts, Rights of Rivers, and Social Movements: Lessons from Ecuador | Abstract: Rights of Nature was articulated in the 2008 Ecuadorian constitution, based on the indigenous concept of sumak kawsay, which puts humans in harmony with ecological systems. We review two recent Rights of Nature cases, the Monjas and Machángara Rivers, to explore how social movement groups are finding complementary strengths by linking the legal/rationalist paradigm with the cultural (constructivist) approaches in a hybrid Rights of Nature of approach. We illustrate how women-led civil society groups use strategies that integrate culture, science, political advocacy, and law to restore rivers. RoN approaches make rivers the subject of rights, thereby shifting law from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric view. Courts in recent cases in Ecuador have linked rights of nature with right to city, including rights to a health environment, water, heritage and sustainability. While courts have focused responsibility on the city (to clean up pollution), and appointed civil society groups as river guardians, they have avoided sanctioning more powerful economic actors.
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