Context: Environmental activists have demanded to accord “Rights to Rivers” at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France.

Universal Declaration of Rights of Rivers

• It was formally declared in 2020.
• It is a civil society initiative to define the basic rights to which all rivers are entitled.

It declares that:

• All rivers are living entities that possess legal standing in a court of law.

All rivers shall possess the following Fundamental Rights:

• Right To Flow
• Right To Perform Essential Functions within its Ecosystem
• Right To Be Free from Pollution
• Right To Feed and be Fed by Sustainable Aquifers
• Right to Native Biodiversity
• Right To Regeneration and Restoration
• Rights are intended not only to ensure the health of rivers, but also health of watersheds and river basins of which rivers are a part.
• Indigenous communities will be represented in river guardianship.
• All states will implement these rights and provide the resources necessary to ensure they are realized.

Rights recognised for rivers around the world
The rights to recognise river as living entities rather than mere human property started in 2008.

• In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to constitutionally recognize the Rights of Nature,

In 2017

• Treaty agreement between Whanganui Iwi (a Maori tribe) and New Zealand government recognised the Whanganui River as a legal person.
• Constitutional Court decision in Colombia recognised the rights of Atrato river.
• Uttarakhand Hight Court recognised the Ganga and Yamuna rivers as legal persons with rights. This was later stayed by the Supreme Court.

Other examples include

• Boulder Creek watershed in the United States
• Magpie river in Canada
• Waterways in Orange County in the US
• Alpayacu river in Ecuador
• Parana river and its wetlands in Argentina

Opportunities and challenges ahead

• There is a fundamental contradiction between the current approach of ‘development’ and the rights of nature. Any policy or law for the protection of rights must maintain the balance between conservation and development.
• Rivers do not follow human-made political boundaries. Hence, the conservation approach and laws must demand a cross-boundary approach and collaborations between neighbouring countries on ecological grounds.
• There is very limited understanding globally on implementation of the rights of rivers. The policy solutions must answer the question of ensuring custodianship, restitution, compensation etc. 

Key Fact: Only 37% of rivers longer than 1000 km still flow freely due to dams being built on them.