Rivers have rights. What happens next?

Rivers have been recognised as legal persons since 2017. Seven years later, we can begin to take stock of the ways in which different countries are giving force and effect to these new laws.

“It’s time to move beyond the theoretical question of whether rivers could, or should, have rights, and to consider how these rights are being implemented”, says Dr Erin O’Donnell, Melbourne Centre for Law and the Environment Program Director for Water Justice and Rights of Rivers.

Rivers have rights report cover image

In July 2023, 30 experts from Australia, the USA, Aotearoa New Zealand, Europe, South Asia and Central and South Americas gathered for a two-day workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities as the rights of rivers are being implemented around the world. The workshop was held on Gadigal Land, hosted by UNSW Law and Justice Faculty, and co-chaired by
Dr Erin O’Donnell (University of Melbourne) and Professor Cameron Holley (UNSW).

“While there has been significant discussion about the benefits of giving rivers rights, there is a need to better understand the different ways these rights are intersecting with established water governance instruments and systems, and what might need to change to maximise fairness, efficiency and effectiveness”, says Professor Cameron Holley, School of Law, Society & Criminology at UNSW’s Faculty of Law and Justice.

“Each country is approaching implementation differently. Implementation challenges include giving new laws force and effect, creating corollary institutional arrangements to support the river persons, and considering how the new laws interact with existing water laws, including water markets”, says O’Donnell.

Over two days, researchers presented 16 short papers that focused on emerging issues from the implementation of rights of nature by drawing on theory and experience from places including Ecuador, India, Spain, France, Australia, Aotearoa, Colombia. Insights were shared from other perspectives on legal personhood, including from philosophy, the rights of persons with disabilities, marginalised groups, and corporations. Legal personhood for nature invites us to consider the relationship between people and nature, which led to insights on the nature of ‘community’ and blurred lines between different categories of legal rights.

One of the key findings of the workshop was that rights of rivers in settler colonial societies, like Australia, must centre and support the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples.

“Our world is all about relationships. It's all about respect. It's all about responsibility, but most importantly it is about how we live in peace and harmony with our environment from the beginning of time”, says Professor Anne Poelina, Nykina Warrwa woman and Chair of Indigenous Knowledges at the Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame.

This report presents the outcome of the conversation of what we now know works, and what doesn’t, as evolving laws in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Bangladesh, India, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Spain grapple with what it means for rivers to have rights and responsibilities as legal beings in the climate-change era.

Dr Erin O'Donnell
Dr Erin O'Donnell
MCLE Program Director
Prof Cameron Holley
Prof Cameron Holley
School of Law, Society & Criminology
UNSW Faculty of Law and Justice