In late 2016 and early 2017, rivers in Colombia, New Zealand and India were given legal personhood. The research project Riverine Rights have studied the cases in detail: How and why did they happen, and what are their implications?
Together with invited experts we discuss the successes and challenges of this legal novelty and place it in a broader context.
In a time of extensive environmental crises, does legal personhood offer new and promising ways of securing the life and wellbeing of rivers and those living with them?
Can legal personhood and rights of nature be useful elsewhere? Is it applicable to a Norwegian context?
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Program
Wednesday 28. August
- 18.00 Film screening, The Atrato River, Colombia: Video presentation and discussion
Thursday 29. August– Academic conference
- 9.00 Welcome
Axel Borchgrevink: Welcome. The Riverine Rights research project - 9.30 Rights of rivers and indigenous rights in New Zealand and Colombia
Miriama Cribb: Beyond legal personhood for the Whanganui River: collaboration and pluralism in implementing the Te Awa Tupua Act
Comments by Mihnea Tanasescu
Catalina Vallejo: The constitutional marasmus of the Atrato River
Comments by Rachel Sieder - 10.30 Break
- 11.00 Rivers and rights – experiences from India and lessons for legislation
Bibhu Prasad Nayak: The legal journey of rights of rivers in India
Rahul Ranjan: Religious environmentalism in India
Comments by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Elizabeth Macpherson: Legal rights for rivers as a 'watershed' - Future directions in law and rights
Comments by Grant Wilson - 12.30 Lunch
- 13.30 Riverine rights and beyond
John Andrew McNeish: The political ecology of river rights
Comments by Rutgerd Boelens
Malene Brandshaug: Rights of waters in Norway? Human-nature relations & environmental activism
Comments by Camilla Brattland
Axel Borchgrevink: River persons, rights and ontologies
Comments by Gro Ween - 15.00 Break
- 15.30 Riverine Rights – promises and challenges
Introductory remarks by Mihnea Tanasescu, Grant Wilson, Catalina Vallejo and John McNeish.
Open discussion by all participants. - 16.30 Break
- 17.30 Film screening
Documentary on the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand - 20.00 Conference dinner
Friday 30. August– Open event
- 9.00 Welcome
OsloMet representative - 9.15 Rivers with rights in India, Colombia and New Zealand
Introduction to the Riverine Rights project: Axel Borchgrevink, OsloMet
The Ganges and Yamuna: Riverine Rights in India: Bibhu Prasad Nayak, Tata Institute of Social Studies Hyderabad, India
Biocultural rights and community participation in the Atrato River Basin: Catalina Vallejo Piedrahita, EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia
From riverine rights to collective responsibility for the Whanganui River: Miriama Cribb, Massey University, New Zealand - 10.30 Break
- 11.00 Future prospects for riverine rights
Environmental activism and rights of waters in Norway: Malene Brandshaug, OsloMet
Riverine Rights across and beyond the case studies: Axel Borchgrevink, OsloMet and John McNeish, NMBU
What can be drawn from the project? Comments from invited guests (Rachel Sieder, CIESAS, Mexico City; Kenneth Bo Nielsen, University of Oslo; Gro Ween, University of Oslo) - 12.30 Lunch
- 13.30 Rivers, rights of nature and indigenous rights
Rivers of history. Professor Terje Tvedt, Universitetet i Bergen
Riverhood: Rivers and social justice movements. Professor Rutgerd Boelens, Universities of Amsterdam and Wageningen
Perspectives on Legal personhood and Rights of Nature. Mihnea Tanasescu, University of Mons
Indigenous and Sami participation in watershed governance and rights recognition. The case of the Tana River in Norway. Associate professor Camilla Brattland, the Arctic University of Norway - 15.30 Break
- 16.00 Rivers and rights of nature in Norway and beyond?
Rights of nature – the way forward? Grant Wilson, Earth Law Centre
Panel debate: Are rights of rivers/nature a good idea for Norway?
Participants: Ande Somby, Arctic University of Norway; Camilla Brattland, Arctic University of Norway; Christina Voigt, University of Oslo
Questions and comments from the audience - 17.30 Break
- 18.30 Film screening
Ellos Eatnu – La elva leve (Let the river live)
Link for streaming of the Friday program will be put up here closer to the time of the conference. Please contact us if you wish to attend on Thursday but cannot come in person.
