Rivers as living beings: rights in law, but no rights to water?

ABSTRACT

Since 2017, some of the most beloved and iconic rivers in the world have been recognised in law as legal persons and/or living entities, with a range of legal rights and protections. These profound legal changes can transform the relationship between people and rivers, and are the result of ongoing leadership from Indigenous peoples and environmental advocates. This paper uses a comparative analysis of the legal and/or living personhood of rivers and lakes in Aotearoa New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, Colombia to identify the legal status of specific rivers, and highlight the disturbing trend of recognising rivers as legal persons and/or living entities whilst also denying rivers the right to flow. Rather than empowering rivers in law to resist existential threats, the new legal status of rivers may thus make it even more difficult to manage rivers to prevent their degradation and loss. This paper highlights an ‘extinction problem’ for rivers that environmental law has exacerbated, by recognising new non-human living beings whilst simultaneously denying them some of the specific legal rights they need to remain in existence. The paper also shows how a pluralist analysis of the status of rivers can help to identify some potential ways to address this problem.

KEYWORDS:

• River
• legal person
• Indigenous
• water rights
• extinction

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters where this research was conducted, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I recognise that the Traditional Owners have never ceded their rights to water and land, and that their laws reflect their responsibility to care for Country. I also acknowledge Afshin Akhtar-Khavari for his helpful feedback on the initial concept of this paper, as well as the thoughtful and detailed feedback from two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

As noted in the methods section, the author is a member of the Birrarung Council, which is part of one of the case studies discussed in the paper.

Notes

1 Vörösmarty et al. (2010); Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005).

2 Clark et al. (2018).

3 Boyd (2017).

4 O’Donnell et al. (2020); Macpherson (2019).

5 Vörösmarty et al. (2010).

6 O'Donnell (2018a), p 188.

7 United Nations Secretary-General. Harmony With Nature. Seventy-fourth Session General Assembly, Item 19(i) of the Provisional Agenda, ‘Sustainable Development.’ (26 July 2019), A/74/236, para 133.

8 See Kurki (2019) p 64, although the earlier work of Ngaire Naffine provides an alternative theoretical perspective which has less difficulty in a wider application of legal personhood, see Naffine (2009).

9 Macpherson, Torres Ventura, and Clavijo Ospina (2020).

10 Poelina, Taylor, and Perdrisat (2019), p 237.

11 See, for example, Steffen (2015).

12 It is noted that the legal person status of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers has been stayed pending the outcome of the ongoing appeal to the Indian Supreme Court.

13 Although not presently highly impacted by water extraction, development proposals for the Martuwarra are under consideration, and Traditional Owners are working to identify their own priorities for sustainable development, see Connor, Regan, and Nicol (2019).

14 Melbourne Water (2019) 'Yarra Catchment', Melbourne Water, Accessed 24 April 2020. <https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water/health-and-monitoring/river-health-and-monitoring/yarra-catchment>.

15 Talbot-Jones (2017), p 70.

16 Waitangi Tribunal (2015), p 5.

17 Harwood et al. (2017); Lokgariwar et al. (2014).

18 Chowdhury (2010); Tawfique Ali, 'Time to declare the Turag dead', The Daily Star (online) (Bangladesh), 6 November 2016 <https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/time-declare-turag-dead-1310182>

19 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018).

20 Lim, Poelina, and Bagnall (2017).

21 Garma International Indigenous Water Declaration (2008), p 2.

22 Godden (1998).

23 McKibben (1989), p 64.

24 Sheehan (2019), p 232.

25 Levis et al. (2017); Pascoe (2018).

26 Fernández-Llamazares et al. (2020), p 752.

27 Kotzé (2014).

28 O’Connor (1994); Palmer (2006); Pelizzon (2014); Dennis-McCarthy (2019).

29 Cohen (2015), 72.

30 Norris and Thoms (1999).

31 Wuijts et al. (2019), 648.

32 Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 743 (1972).

33 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [17, 19].

34 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018); Kauffman and Martin (2019); Clark et al. (2018).

35 O’Donnell et al. (2020); Pelizzon (2014).

36 Te Aho (2009), p 285.

37 Garma International Indigenous Water Declaration (2008), p 2.

38 Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, art 71–74.

39 Wheeler v Director de la Procuraduria General Del Estado de Loja, Juicio No. 11121-2011-0010, translations from Spanish as per Daly (2012).

40 Poelina, Taylor, and Perdrisat (2019).

41 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (NZ), ss 14(1), 18(2).

42 Mohd Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others, WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 [19] <http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/uhc/RS/orders/22-03-2017/RS20032017WPPIL1262014.pdf> accessed 31 May 2017.

43 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ y otros con el Presidente de la Republica y otros: 10 noviembre 2016, Corte Constitucional, Sala Sexta de Revisión (No T-5.016.242) (Colombia); translations from Spanish as per Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018).

44 Yarra River Protecton (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), s1(a).

45 J. Ahni Schertow (2019) ‘The Yurok Nation just established the rights of the Klamath River’ Cultural Survival, 21 May <https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/yurok-nation-just-established-rights-klamath-river>.

46 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019, at 277–8); translation from Bangla as per Islam and O’Donnell (2020).

47 Takacs (2020); O'Donnell et al. (2020).

48 Lindroos-Hovinheimo (2017), p 30.

49 Naffine (2009), p 9.

50 Naffine (2017), p 21.

51 Naffine (2017), p 16.

52 Naffine (2009), p 21.

53 Arstein-Kerslake (2017).

54 Kurki (2019), 95.

55 Lindroos-Hovinheimo (2017), p 31.

56 Stone (1972), pp 451–2.

57 Naffine (2009), p 11.

58 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 14(1).

59 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ and Others v the President of the Republic and Others [2016] Corte Constituciónal [Constitutional Court], Sala Sexta de Revision [Sixth Chamber] (Colombia) No T-622 of 2016 (10 November 2016), translations as per Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018).

60 The precedent was directly applied by a Colombian Supreme Court to grant legal rights to the Amazon rainforest in Colombia, see Barragán and Others v President of the Republic and Others, No STC4360 of 2018, Corte Suprema de Justicia [Supreme Court], Sala de Casación Civil (5 April 2018).

61 Macpherson, Torres Ventura, and Clavijo Ospina (2020).

62 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [19].

63 Lalit Miglani v State of Uttarakhand & others, WPPIL 140/2015 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017, 64.

64 O’Donnell (2018b), p 138.

65 Safi, Michael, 'Murder most foul: polluted Indian river reported dead despite 'living entity' status' (2017) The Guardian <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/indian-yamuna-river-living-entity-ganges>.

66 Lokgariwar, Chicu, The Sad State Of These Persons Called Ganga & Yamuna – Can State Protect Them? (11 April 2017) South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People <https://sandrp.in/2017/04/11/the-sad-state-of-these-persons-called-ganga-yamuna-can-state-protect-them/>.

67 Naffine (2017), p 20.

68 This may change, as animal rights law continues to develop, see Jowitt (2020).

69 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), ss 1, 3, 14.

70 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 (Vic).

71 Stone (1972).

72 O’Donnell (2018a), p 31–32.

73 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019, at 277–8); translation from Bangla as per Islam and O’Donnell (2020).

74 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 12.

75 Fitzroy River Declaration, September 2016, Broome <https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/fitzroy-river-declaration>, see also Lim, Poelina, and Bagnall (2017); Poelina, Taylor, and Perdrisat (2019).

76 Universal Declaration of River Rights (draft), September 2017, Earth Law Centre, <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJBL_8×26tgEXkpEKqw6IkQDKFynSNQCqeL0n9feoEXB1B9Q/viewform>.

77 Brisbane Declaration, Environmental Flows are Essential for Freshwater Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being (10th International River Symposium and International Environmental Flows Conference, 3–6 September 2007, Brisbane, Australia, 2007); see also Arthington et al. (2018).

78 Arthington (2012); Poff et al. (1997).

79 Harwood et al. (2017); Le Quesne et al. (2010).

80 Horne, O'Donnell, and Tharme (2017).

81 O'Donnell and Garrick (2017).

82 Statement from Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owner Corporation in south-west Victoria., pers. comm.

83 O’Donnell and Talbot-Jones (2018), p 5.

84 Kauffman and Martin (2019), p 272.

85 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ and Others v the President of the Republic and Others [2016] Corte Constituciónal [Constitutional Court], Sala Sexta de Revision [Sixth Chamber] (Colombia) No T-622 of 2016 (10 November 2016), translations as per Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018).

86 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018), p 292.

87 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 16.

88 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019), translation from Bangla as per Islam and O’Donnell (2020), 272.

89 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), ss 3, 20, 21.

90 Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914 (WA), s 5A.

91 O’Donnell and Garrick (2017), p 432.

92 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), ss 27, 28.

93 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), ss 35–37.

94 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018), p 290.

95 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), ss 3, 20, 21.

96 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [19].

97 Nishat Jute Mills Limited v Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) and others [2019] Appellate Division (Civil Petition No. 3039 of 2019) judgment declared on 17 February 2020, 37.

98 Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (2005).

99 See, for example, World Economic Forum (2020).

100 Flörke et al. (2018).

101 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018), p 290.

102 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ and Others v the President of the Republic and Others [2016] Corte Constituciónal [Constitutional Court], Sala Sexta de Revision [Sixth Chamber] (Colombia) No T-622 of 2016 (10 November 2016), translations as per Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina, (2018).

103 Macpherson and Clavijo Ospina (2018), p 292.

104 Fitzroy River Declaration, September 2016, Broome <https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/fitzroy-river-declaration>.

105 Fitzroy River Declaration, September 2016, Broome <https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/fitzroy-river-declaration>, see also Lim, Poelina, and Bagnall (2017); Poelina, Taylor, and Perdrisat (2019).

106 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), s 1(a).

107 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act 2017 (Vic), ss 1, 3, 14.

108 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 13(b).

109 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), ss 12, 14(1).

110 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 16.

111 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [17, 19].

112 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [19].

113 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others WPPIL 126/2014 (High Court of Uttarakhand) 2017 (India), [19].

114 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019, at 277–8); translation from Bangla as per Islam and O’Donnell (2020).

115 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019, at 44); translation from Bangla as per Islam and O’Donnell (2020).

116 See, for example, the USA’s Endangered Species Act 1973 (USA), 16 U.S.C. ch. 35 § 1531 et seq.

117 See, for example, Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth), ss 18A, 182.

118 Rockström et al. (2009); Vörösmarty et al. (2010).

119 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ and Others v the President of the Republic and Others [2016] Corte Constituciónal [Constitutional Court], Sala Sexta de Revision [Sixth Chamber] (Colombia) No T-622 of 2016 (10 November 2016), para 2.1.

120 Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social ‘Tierra Digna’ and Others v the President of the Republic and Others [2016] Corte Constituciónal [Constitutional Court], Sala Sexta de Revision [Sixth Chamber] (Colombia) No T-622 of 2016 (10 November 2016), para 9.12.

121 Mohd Salim v State of Uttarakhand & others, High Court of Uttarakhand, (2017) (Ganges and Yamuna Rivers Case) para 19.

122 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 13(b).

123 Shanafield et al. (2020).

124 Brondizio et al. (2019), Chapter 2.2, p 95.

125 As the state of being extinct also includes the total loss or disappearance of an entity, where the entity is no longer active or no longer in existence, see definition of extinct provided in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

126 Francis et al. (2008), p 437.

127 Adam (2019), p 291 (emphasis added).

128 Brij Khandewal, activist, quoted in Safi, Michael (2017) ‘Murder most foul: polluted Indian river reported dead despite 'living entity' status.’ The Guardian <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/indian-yamuna-river-living-entity-ganges>

129 Akhtar-Khavari (2020).

130 Berry (1999), p 5.

131 Universal Declaration of River Rights (draft), September 2017, Earth Law Centre, <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJBL_8×26tgEXkpEKqw6IkQDKFynSNQCqeL0n9feoEXB1B9Q/viewform>

132 Davies et al. (2020).

133 State of Uttarakhand & others v Mohd Salim & others, Petition for Special Leave to Appeal 016879/2017 (Supreme Court of India) 7 July 2017.

134 Chandran (2019).

135 Timothy Williams, 'Legal Rights for Lake Erie? Voters in Ohio City Will Decide', The New York Times 17 February 2019, <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/lake-erie-legal-rights.html>.

136 Drewes Farm Partnership v. City of Toledo Ohio 441 F. Supp. 3d 551 (N.D. Ohio 2020).

137 Goldtooth (2015), p 15.

138 Wada and Bierkens (2014); Munia et al. (2020).

139 Ruru (2019).

140 See particularly the arguments against rights of nature made by Rolston III (1993).

141 Tribe (1974); Plater (1994).

142 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), ss 12, 14(1).

143 Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (New Zealand), s 13.

144 Takacs (2020), 28.

145 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017, preamble.

146 Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017, s 1 (a).

147 Parmar (2015).

148 Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Government of Bangladesh and others [2016] HCD (Writ Petition No. 13989 of 2016, judgement declared on 3 February 2019, 283) (translation from Bangla by M. S. Islam).

149 Bark, Robinson, and Flessa (2016), p 166.

150 Kendy et al. (2017), pp 691–692.

151 Kendy et al. (2017), p 692.

152 Salmond (2014) p 286.

153 Tănăsescu (2020), 429.

154 Gerrard Albert, Whanganui iwi, quoted in Takacs (2020), p 21.

155 O'Donnell et al. (2020).

156 Stone (1972), p 458.

157 O'Donnell and Talbot-Jones (2018).

158 Sheehan (2019), p 241.

159 Whittemore (2011).

160 Takacs (2020), p 23.

161 Water Act 1989 (Vic), ss 33DB-33DE.

162 Marshall (2020).

163 Watson (2018), p 119.

164 Takacs (2020), p 23.

165 Garrick et al. (2017).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Melbourne Law School Early Career Academic Research Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Erin O’Donnell

Dr Erin O'Donnell is a water law and policy specialist, focusing on environmental water management, Indigenous water rights, water markets, and water governance. She has worked in water resource management since 2002, in both the private and public sectors. She is currently an Early Career Academic Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Erin is also a member of the inaugural Birrarung Council, the voice of the Yarra River.