Huge victory for Rights of Nature & Ecocide at the IUCN World Conservation Congress: ALL five Rights of Nature motions, and Motion 061 on recognizing the crime of ecocide, have passed!
The motions transforming global conservation are:
🌿 Motion 054 — Operationalizing the Rights of Nature in territories (bringing Rights of Nature into real places and protected areas)
🗻 Motion 055 — Recognition of the Rights of Antarctica (protecting Antarctica & the Southern Ocean as rights-bearing ecosystems)
🌊 Motion 056 — Advancing an ethical human–ocean relationship (shifting oceans from “resources” to living systems with legal standing)
💧Motion 067 — Living in harmony with rivers through Rights of Nature & ecocentric law (stronger protection and governance for rivers)
🧪 Motion 070 — Integrating science, rights-based approaches, and ecological recovery (bridging restoration, Indigenous knowledge & rights)
⚠️ Motion 061 — Recognizing the crime of ecocide to protect Nature (calling for national and international recognition of ecocide as a crime)
🌱 Why this matters:
Together, these motions redefine conservation, from managing Nature as a resource to enshrining ecosystems as legal subjects with the right to exist, thrive, and regenerate.
They provide concrete legal tools, policy guidance, and accountability mechanisms that communities, governments, and courts can apply worldwide.
More information: https://www.garn.org/iucn-2025/
Learn more about the World Future Council’s 2025 World Policy Award here.
We are also proud to acknowledge that in the context of the IUCN’s focus on forward-looking conservation governance, the World Future Council’s 2025 World Policy Award lifted up five landmark policies that embody the Rights of Nature paradigm:
