Passcode: 12345

The emerging paradigm of Rights of Nature (RoN) represents a transformative approach to environmental protection, challenging traditional anthropocentric legal frameworks by recognizing the intrinsic value of ecosystems. This presentation explores the conceptual and practical dimensions of RoN, comparing developments in the Global North with the Global South, where it has been advanced by indigenous movements, drawing from collaborative research and practical interventions in India's complex ecological landscapes. The talk will critically examine how RoN can provide innovative legal mechanisms for environmental conservation, whilst engaging with its challenges where communities are dependent on nature, as in the biodiverse Sundarbans. After considering some international precedents such as New Zealand's Whanganui River and Bangladesh's groundbreaking river rights legislation, Sue will describe the King's Legal Clinic's Rights of Nature Toolkit as a practical framework for activists advancing river protection through an ecocentric lens. Could a similar approach work in India?

The discussion will interrogate both the potential and limitations of RoN as a decolonial strategy for environmental justice. By recognising distinct Global North and Global South perspectives, this presentation aims to provoke critical reflection on alternative legal approaches to ecological protection.

Sue's talk will be in conversation with collaborator Abhayraj Naik, who will invoke his experience of RoN in India to broaden the debate. The talk aims for a provocative exploration of rights-based environmental strategies . 

Sue Willman got involved in the UK 'Rights of Nature' movement in 2011 after hearing Nimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth International activist and poet of the Nigerian Ogoni people talk about the pollution of the Niger delta saying 'keep the coal in the hole, keep the oil in the soil. Do you really need a car?.'

Sue is Assistant Director and Senior Lecturer at the King’s College, Legal Clinic, London where she has launched the UK’s only Human Rights and Environment Clinic | King’s Legal Clinic | King’s College London. She is also a solicitor at DPG law - UK civil rights and judicial review litigation firm , currently representing Amnesty International in an intervention challenging UK arms exports to Israel. She has a BA in jurisprudence from Oxford university and an LLM from Georgetown university, Washington DC, USA, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.

At King's she has been working with students to protect the environment from a Rights of Nature (RoN) perspective. On 4 December there is a hearing in the Council of Europe of a complaint using ecocentric arguments that she has brought in collaboration with Serbian NGOs in relation to endangered species affected by a British mining company. In 2024 the Legal Clinic co-produced a rights of nature toolkit on rivers in the UK, to encourage legal and strategic action for river protection, which it is hoped can act as a model for others.

Sue co-founded the 'Transnational remedies for environmental harm' LLM as a transnational module between King's and NUJS Kolkata which focuses on empowering communities in the Sundarbans delta affected by the Climate and nature emergency. She has collaborated with Abhayraj Naik at various international workshops on global south/ global north collaborations to tackle the environmental justice gap, seeking alternative decolonial approaches. 

Passcode: 12345

There will be a Q&A session following the talk.

All are welcome!