Anja Murray: Will we add 'Rights of Nature' to our Constitution?

Ireland had a very early set of legal tracts, the Brehon Laws, which laid out detailed rules for the management and protection of trees, fisheries, wild birds, seaweed, and other resources essential for people

The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss calls for us to recognise that nature has a right to exist, to flourish, perpetuate itself, and be restored if degraded. Picture: Andrew Brown/Shutterstock

For much of known history, human beings were considered property. Assaulting or killing a slave was a matter of property law, not a matter of human rights. Now, our concept of ownership has evolved and our attitudes and conscious approach, as a society, to fellow humans is radically different to what it once was.

We have even come so far as to universally recognise that all human beings have the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and more. When it was first proposed that these fundamental human rights would be enshrined in law, the idea was a radical one. 

It was only in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly agreed the first legal document setting out the fundamental human rights and how they were to be protected. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now a foundation for a comprehensive body of human rights law applicable across the globe. Violations, while still widespread, are no longer morally acceptable in the 21st century and can be challenged because of a strong body of law.

The idea of ‘nature’ having rights might seem a little strange, especially rights that could be underpinned by law. But all throughout history, what at first seem like radical ideas have shaped civilisation and transformed human attitudes and behaviour.

Not that long ago, slaves, women and children were considered property, now this approach is unthinkable. But until they too had rights, they were not seen as anything but a ‘thing’ to be used and exploited at the preference of the owner. 

The curlew is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland, as well as breeding in small numbers in floodplains and boglands. Numbers and range have declined substantially in recent decades. It is likely that increased afforestation and agricultural improvement are responsible for these declines, notes BirdWatch Ireland. Picture: Owen Murphy/CCP/NPWS

This is how we now see the natural world, with trees, woodlands, lakes, oceans all at our disposal to be used according to our needs and whims. Legal systems consider nature as property and the owners of this property are entitled to extract and utilise the ‘resources’ in their possession. Exploitation of ecosystems to the point at which they become so degraded that they die is a purely economic decision.

The idea of giving legal recognition to the ‘Rights of Nature’ is a concept rapidly gaining pace across the world. The ‘Rights of Nature’ essentially re-frames wild species and the ecosystems of which they are part as entities with legal rights, such as a right to exist and flourish, in the same way that laws currently regard people and corporate entities. 

With a legal framework, people, communities, and governments would have the authority to defend those rights on behalf of ecosystems and natural communities.

Considering that nature is the common foundation for all of our health and wellbeing, the ‘Rights of Nature’ are closely interlinked with the principle of protecting ‘the common good’. Both for the benefit of human societies and for the intrinsic rights of non-human creatures to exist, it follows that we would ethically consider nature to have basic and inalienable rights.

The first country to formally recognise and implement the ‘Rights of Nature’ was Ecuador, in 2008, when the ‘Rights of Nature were enshrined in their constitution. Bolivia has also established Rights of Nature laws. In New Zealand a dispute between the Tūhoe people and the government was settled by an area of more than square kilometres being given “legal recognition in its own right” in 2014. 

Several US states have been working toward constitutional amendments to incorporate the rights of nature and many municipalities have formally recognised the rights of nature in respect of specific rivers and ecosystems, for example.

Last month in Ireland, the first-ever national Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss anywhere in the world launched its report with recommendations on how Ireland might best address the range of complex challenges facing nature. The 159 recommendations made by the Citizens' Assembly range from practical actions to strategic changes to Irish governance and constitutional amendments. 

Among the recommendations are several which deal with establishing the ‘Rights of Nature’ in the Irish constitution. Specifically, the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has proposed a referendum to amend the Constitution with a view to protecting biodiversity, to include the rights of humans to a clean, healthy, safe environment and the rights of future generations to these or other environmental rights. 

The Citizens' Assembly report also calls for the Constitution to be amended to recognise nature as a holder of legal rights, comparable to companies or people. They call for us to recognise that nature has a right to exist, to flourish, perpetuate itself, and be restored if degraded. It also calls for nature to be a party in administrative decision-making and litigation.

Ireland had a very early set of rules, or legal tracts, called the 'Brehon Laws’ (also called the ‘Laws of the Neighbourhood’). These were laid down in writing in the 8th century with detailed prescriptions for the management and protection of trees, fisheries, wild birds, seaweed, and other ‘resources’ that were essential for people. 

In the Brehon Laws, trees and animals were categorised according to their value and utility and penalties for damage were stated accordingly. At the time, these Brehon Laws would have formalised the relationship between humans and the natural world, in the interest of fairness and what we now call ‘sustainability’. 

An oak tree. One of the chieftain trees under Brehon Law

The ‘Rights of Nature’ goes beyond the perception of nature as a ‘thing’ that exists purely for our use, embedding a more evolved and ethical approach that recognises humans as part of a rich tapestry of life, without assuming our own authority to eliminate wild species and ecosystems for our own, primarily economic, benefit.

Given the context in the 21st century, this evolution in approach is very much needed. The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss outlines also how only 2% of Ireland is covered in native woodland; how more than a quarter of regularly occurring bird species here are in danger of extinction; and how countless other habitats have been lost in the last two decades. 

Enshrining the ‘Rights of Nature’ into our Constitution would reflect a necessary evolution of how we frame our place in the world.

• Anja Murray’s new book, Wild Embrace, is available now. Follow Anja on twitter @miseanja