Advancing the Rights of Nature

This workshop with Mari Margil from Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) will provide a practical examination of the Rights of Nature – what it is; why and how it is advancing around the world; and strategies for advancing it at the local and national level in Sweden and other countries. This will include discussion on how existing environmental laws legalize the use and exploitation of nature, and how these frameworks are unable to protect nature.

Art for the Rights of Nature

Ecological Rights and Environmental Justice

Humans, as part of nature, share the rights of nature. We live together in interconnected and interdependent ways. This workshop will reflect on how rights of nature relate to human rights and environmental justice. The demands that human societies place on nature may imply an unequal distribution of rights in some cases. Moreover, rights that are beneficial to certain societies may or may not be beneficial for other societies or lives. By extension, rights for nature must entail different kinds of rights for different communities. How might rights of nature support non-exploitative, mutually nurturing relationships between people? This workshop includes a conversation between Stefania Barca, Martin Hultman, Cormac Cullinan and Marie Persson moderated by Marco Armiero, director of Environmental Humanities Laboratory at KTH.

Law & Ecological Awakening

The International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature

Co-Creating a New Earth Rights Movement from the Inside Out - A truth and reconciliation process in every heart

Earth rights and the role of native spiritual traditions

Indigenous and traditional cosmovisions have been a very important inspiration for the Rights of Nature movement from the start. The sacredness and interconnectedness of all life is the foundation whereupon indigenous cultures are built. Dominant paradigms of colonization and modernization through history and in present times have caused transformations and even loss of many spiritual traditions. In this sense decolonization of indigenous knowledge and spirituality become an important challenge. This workshop is a dialogue between Patricia Gualinga from the Sarayaku, an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and Henrik Hallgren, practitioner of Forn Sidr – the Scandinavian heathen tradition. The dialogue is expressed partly as a shared ceremony and partly as a verbal dialogue where all participants will be invited to share reflections.

The Nature of learning - Humanity and the More-than-Human world in Education

MARI MARGIL

Mari Margil is the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), where she leads the organization’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. CELDF is a founding member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and assisted in drafting the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth. Margil assisted Ecuador’s Constituent Assembly to draft Rights of Nature constitutional provisions, and is working in Nepal, India, Australia, and other countries to advance Rights of Nature frameworks. In 2016, Margil assisted members of the Ho-Chunk Nation in the United States to draft the first tribal constitutional amendment on the Rights of Nature, and advised members of the Green Party of England and Wales in developing their new party platform on the Rights of Nature.

PATRICIA GUALINGA

Patricia Gualinga is the international representative for the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, Ecuadorian Amazon. Patricia has been participating in various international activities on the Rights of Nature sharing the knowledge and experience of her community and she has a long experience of environmental activism. Sarayaku is a rainforest community of 1200 Kichwa-speaking people famous for their successful efforts fighting back against the oil industry’s influence in their native land. Sarayaku has been able to resist the threats from the oil industry thanks to the collective efforts of the community.

ISAK STODDARD

Isak Stoddard is based at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS) at the University of Uppsala and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He works on developing transformative and transdisciplinary approaches to higher education, research as a response to the global environmental and social challenges of our times. Isak is also the coordinator of a new 10-year research-initiative on climate change leadership, centered around a series of visiting professorships at Uppsala University made possible by a donation from Zennström Philanthropies. Isak has an educational background in engineering physics, systems technology and energy systems. He enjoys frequent adventures to the Scandinavian mountains for skiing, wandering and climbing.

NIKLAS HÖGBERG

MARTIN HULTMAN

Associate professor Martin Hultman works as lecturer at Linköping and Gothenburg University. He is engaged in local politics organising events around ecotourism, popular science and transition. As an interdisciplinary scholar he is the co-ordinator of Environmental Posthumanities Network, initiator of SweMineTechNet and organiser of two international conference on ecopreneurship and climate denialism respectively. His publications include the books Discourses of Global Climate Change and Den inställda omställningen. Hultmans current research revolves around issues such as posthumanities ethics, ecofeminism, environmental utopias, climate change denial and ecopreneurship historically as well as contemporary. At the moment he is finishing a new book project called Ecological Masculinities.

ÅSA SIMMA

Åsa Simma was born into a nomadic reindeer herding family, migrating between north Sweden and Norway depending on the season. She was taught the traditional Sami singing called “yoik”, during that time yoiks was forbidden. She was part of the movement to diminish the yoiking ban. She left for Denmark where she took an actors education. Åsa Simma has been very active in the global indigenous peoples movements. She has toured among Australian Aboriginals, lived with Inuits from Greeenland and North American Indians. She has worked as a dramaturgist and script developer at the International Sami Film Institute. Today she is the CEO of Giron Sámi Teáhter.

EMILIA REKESTAD

Emilia Rekestad is one of the co-facilitators of the conference. She generally acts within a diverse set of fields found in the wide array of sustainable solutions. Emilia works as a course- and projectcoordinator mainly within the Swedish Association of Permaculture and in Transition Sweden. Exploring co-creation and forms of participatory leadership, in the benefit of all, is central to her work. With a degree in biology with focus on gardening and health, Emilia has a deep interest in how landscapes can be diversified and truly regenerative – for both people and planet. She is a council member of the European Network ECOLISE which unites community-led initiatives for sustainability across Europe.

FEMKE WIJDEKOP

Femke Wijdekop works as a Senior Expert in environmental justice for the program ‘Defending Environmental Defenders’ at IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands and is an associate of the Institute for Environmental Security in The Hague. Previously, she worked as a researcher in the fields of international and constitutional law at the University of Amsterdam. For the past several years, she has been working with End Ecocide in Europe and Polly Higgins to make ecocide the fifth crime against peace. Her published writings have focused on such issues as the emerging ecocentrism in law and the Urgenda climate case, in which she is a co-litigant. She holds a Masters of Law degree from the Free University Amsterdam.

JAN TERSTAD

Jan Terstad heads the Biodiversity and Forest Department at Swedish Society of Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen). He has a long experience working with nature conservation issues at the Government Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and other places.

HENRIK HALLGREN

Henrik Hallgren is the founder of Lodyn, a Swedish non-governmental organization engaged in Ecopsychology, Nature awareness and Nature’s rights activism. He is teaching courses, lectures and write books, articles and reports in these topics. In 2016 he was part of the interactive dialogue of the UN General Assembly on Harmony with Nature. He is a ceremonial leader in the Scandinavian heathen tradition called Forn Sed, and has an academic background in archaeology and social anthropology.

MALIN ÖSTMAN

Malin Östman has worked at CEMUS since 2005 in different capacities. Currently she also works for the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala university with educational development. 2013 Malin won Uppsala University´s pedagogical price for Active Student Participation. Right now her primary focus is on how to encourage students and the university at large to take on the current sustainability challenges as well as being an active participant in society.

GUNILLA HÖGBERG BJÖRK

Gunilla Högberg Björck is a lawyer and single owner of the law firm GBH Miljörätt, mainly working as legal representative for environmental NGOs and private citizens in matters of environmental law. Gunilla has worked with many different cases regarding protection of nature, issues of legal standing and access to justice. She represented the NGO Djurgården-Lilla Värtans Miljöskyddsförening before the EU court in case C-263/08 (a case resulting in changes in the Swedish Environmental Code concerning legal standing for environmental NGOs). Gunilla often teaches environmental law.

LÅNGSJÖ THEATRE

Långsjö teater is a touring theatre company based in Gnesta, Sweden. Co-creative processes, openness and curiosity are the core qualities of the company´s work. Långsjö teater is known for working close to interdisciplinary sustainability research and also for having a longer period of time of own research before each production. The artistic language of the Company is complex embodying and experimenting with various disciplines as storytelling, clown and mask, live music, kathakali and other body work. The performances often have an improvisational and interactive part where each audience of each performance has the chance to receive a unique experience.

STEFANIA BARCA

CORMAC CULLINAN

Cormac Cullinan is based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a director of the South African environmental law firm, Cullinan & Associates Inc, and Chief Executive Officer of EnAct International, an environmental governance consultancy. A former anti-apartheid activist, and a London-based commercial lawyer, he has practised, taught and written about environmental law and policy since 1992, and has worked in more than 20 countries. In the academic field he has lectured and written widely on governance issues related to human interactions with the environment and is notable for authoring a book, Wild Law. Cormac led the drafting of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. His work in pioneering a legal philosophy that restores an ecological perspective to governance systems (Earth jurisprudence) is internationally recognised.

MARIE PERSSON NJAJTA

Marie Persson Njajta is a member of the Sami Parliament and human rights activist dedicated to indigenous rights and childrens rights. She has founded the Network Stop the mine in Rönnbäck, fighting the last 8 years against a nickel mine planned on her ancestral lands in the Ume river delta. Marie is often speaking on the exploitation and colonisation of Sapmi.

PEDER KARLSSON

Peder Karlsson is the cultural coordinator of the conference. He graduated in 1989 from The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, with a post-graduate Diploma in vocal ensemble performance.  He was a member of the internationally renowned Swedish a cappella group The Real Group 1984-2010, with whom he made 16 CDs and over 2000 concerts all over the world. Peder is Honorary Professor at Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and Aalborg, Denmark, where he teaches artistic leadership in rhythmic choir music since 2015. He has co-created the “Organic Choirs” concept, which is based on rotated leadership and singer-centered creative processes. He is a founding member of European Voices Association and a part of the activism network End Ecocide Sweden.

MARCO ARMIERO

Marco Armiero is Director of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where he is also Associate Professor of Environmental History. He is the author of A Rugged Nation. Mountains and the Making of Modern Italy (2011) and co-editor of A History of Environmentalism. Local Struggles, Global Histories (2014), and Nature and History in Modern Italy (2010). He is also a senior editor of Capitalism Nature Socialism and Environmental Humanities.

ALF LINDERMAN

Alf Linderman is associate professor of sociology of religion and executive director at the Sigtuna Foundation. In his research he has primarily focused on the relation between religion, media, politics and society, but he has also been involved in several research projects on climate change and the human capacity for innovation and adaptation.

PELLA THIEL

Ecologist by training, changemaker and cultural creative by trade, Pella Thiel has a diverse experience as a nature interpreter and environmental activist. She has co-founded End Ecocide Sweden and Transition Network Sweden and writes, speaks and teaches on issues related to transition, ecopsychology and human relationships with nature. Pella is also a member of UN Harmony with Nature Knowledge Initiative and mostly likes practising permaculture on her family farm in Stockholm archipelago.

BJÖRN OLA LIND

Björnola Lind is an artist educated at Art high school in Stockholm. He is born in northern Sweden and was adopted as an adult by Bundjalung people in Australia, from whom he was taught sacred playing technics on Yidaki. In several projects he has been working with musicians and artists from different indigenous cultures in a zone between traditional knowledge and site specific performance. The last ten years he has also been making films based on Saami mythology for Swedish television. The films are poetic documentaries portraying animals, but also the intimate relation between the Saami people, their mythological stories and the landscape.