“We the people assume the authority to conduct an International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature. We will investigate cases of environmental destruction, which violate the Rights of Nature.” Prosecutor for the Earth, Ramiro Avila declared during the opening of the world’s first Tribunal on the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth. The Tribunal held its inaugural session on Friday, January 17, 2014, in Quito, Ecuador.
Dr. Vandana Shiva, internationally renowned author, physicist, and environmental activist presided over the historic Tribunal together with nine other distinguished judges from seven countries and five continents. Dr. Shiva presented the closing ruling to admit all the nine cases of alleged violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, adopted in Cochabamba on April 20, 2010, and, for Ecuadorian cases, of the Ecuadorian Constitution. The Tribunal will be a permanent platform for hearing and judging cases from around the world.
In December 2014, the second International Rights of Nature Tribunal was convened in Lima, Peru parallel to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The next Tribunal is scheduled for Paris, France December 4-5.
Tribunal Judges
Dr. Vandana Shiva, President
Navdana, India
Tom Goldtooth, Dine’/Dakota, Director, Indigenous Environmental Network, USA
Climate Change Case
Alberto Acosta, economist and former President of the Constituent Assembly, Ecuador
Yasuni ITT
Elsie Monge, human rights activist and president of CEDHU y FIDH, Ecuador
Tantoo Cardinal, actress (e.g., Dances with Wolves) from the Tar Sands of Canada
Hydraulic Fracking
Atossa Soltani, Director of Amazon Watch, USA
BP Oil Spill
Blanca Chancoso, Kichwa leader, Ecuador
GMOs and Transgenics
Julio César Trujillo, constitutional lawyer for Yasunidos, Ecuador
Chevron/Texaco
Cormac Cullinan, lawyer and author (Wild Law), Earth Democracy Coop, South Africa
Great Barrier Reef
Enrique Viale, environmental lawyer, Argentina
Prosecutor on Behalf of Mother Earth
and Tribunal Secretariat