Rights of Mother Earth
Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth
Alongside our partners, we are asking the UN to formally engage in drafting and adopting a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth to complement the Human Rights Declaration—a declaration acknowledging Nature’s aliveness and that it is deserving of rights and protections, just like humans.
Under most current legal systems, Nature is treated as a commodity and has no standing in court. This void in the law is at the core of the depletion and destruction that Nature has endured for decades, and it must be corrected.
We propose the UN use the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth from the people’s conference in Cochabamba as inspiration when drafting the UN Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth. This Declaration includes the wisdom and knowledge of people from ancient and modern societies from around the world and points the way to aligning our laws and ways of living with those of Nature.
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Today’s legal systems facilitate economics with little consideration of Nature. Since Nature is largely unprotected under the law, except as property, environmental law typically can only carve out moderate protection programs for endangered species and their habitats. In the face of mounting climate change, biodiversity loss, and various forms of pollution, it’s clear this approach is not working anymore.
Nature being an object or property in the eyes of legal systems has several undesirable consequences, foremost that it is practically impossible for citizens to protect Nature using the law. For instance, endangered species protections often serve only to keep species on life support rather than to support their ability to thrive. Without legally acknowledged relationships and obligations of duty and care for Nature, tort law can only secure compensation for human losses, with no obligation to restore Nature. How can “rights” change this status quo? Rights of Nature is a framework of law that includes legal personality, duty of care, and ecological governance—it offers a wide variety of ideas, many of them already implemented in countries and localities around the world, for bringing Nature’s voice in to legal systems.
Including Rights of Nature in local, national, and international legal structures would provide for an economy in harmony with Nature, based on a fair legal system that includes all stakeholders.
Earth Law Center is proud to carry on the efforts of the organization Rights of Mother Earth, which closed its website in February 2026 after 15 years of advocacy, to keep on building support for this landmark declaration.
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Header Photo: Unsplash / Nasa