Rights of Nature
The Committee of the International Law Association (ILA) on Rights of Nature (the RoN Committee) aims to study the evolving law in this field and contribute to the further development of international law addressing rights of nature through developing common principles, general guidelines and concrete proposals. The RoN Committee will build upon previous activities of the ILA in related fields, in particular the work of the Committee on Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development (1992-2002), the Committee on International Law on Sustainable Development (2003-2012), the Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development (2012-2020), the Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2006-2012), the Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2013-2020), the Committee on Legal Principles Relating to Climate Change (2008-2014) and the Committee on Water Resources Law (1990-2004).
The purpose of the RoN Committee is to study and analyse developments in international, transnational and domestic legal systems with regards to evolving forms of nature protection based on ecocentric perspectives. It will focus on analysing the interface between sustainable development and rights of nature, the interface between Indigenous rights and rights of nature and the interface between human rights and rights of nature. In other words, it would engage with the broader framework of Harmony with Nature, as developed since the late 2000s, which emerges from sustainable development, and seeks to address the increasing criticisms laid at anthropocentric environmental protection frameworks. The broader context is that of the climate crisis and anthropogenic climate change. The RoN Committee would engage with evolving ways of considering environmental protection under the evolving discourse of rights of nature.
The RoN Committee will work towards advancing knowledge in the field, producing reports which illustrate the state of the art in this field as well as addressing ongoing debates concerning the recognition of rights of nature at the international level. It aims to contribute to the further development of international law addressing rights of nature through developing common principles, general guidelines and concrete proposals. The Committee will then consider whether to request an extension of its mandate to develop draft articles that could later be adopted by States as part of a general legal instrument concerning rights of nature.
