What idea is powerful enough to heal the relationship between humans and nature?

Sigtuna, Sweden May 10-11 2019

”Sigtuna

Sigtuna May 10-11, 2019

Savour a flavour of Earth Rights Conference 2019 in this mini documentary made with love by Phil Jamieson Photography!

As soon as we have more filmed material available we will post it, please bear with us.

EARTH RIGHTS CONFERENCE

A space for dialogue and co-creation about the idea that nature, not just humans, have rights.

Can this idea be the foundation for a new dimension of respect and harmony between humanity and the planet? The legal and existential dimensions of this question are raised and examined, in dialogue with leading voices for Earth rights from different parts of the world. This is the second international conference on Earth rights arranged by the Sigtuna Foundation in cooperation with Lodyn and Cemus.

Thank you all from near and far who created such a magical space with us!

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WHEN

May 10-11, full days

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WHERE

Sigtunastiftelsen
Sigtuna
Sweden

Find your way to Sigtunastiftelsen

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REGISTER

Register at Sigtunastiftelsen

Alternative accommodation at Sigtuna Folkhögskola Hostel, about 10 minutes walking distance from Sigtunastiftelsen, offers accommodation at a discounted price. Single room SEK 495, double room SEK 645. For reservation contact frida.jansson@sigtunafolkhögskola.se. Discount code: ERC

Place is important. 100 years ago the Sigtuna Foundation was built with the aim to inspire human thought and reflection. Society has changed in many ways since then, but the ambition is still the same: to offer an open space for people with different backgrounds, traditions and viewpoints to meet, interact and learn from one another in atmosphere of mutual respect. A better place for discussing the relationship between humans and nature is hard to find. Visit Sigtuna Foundation

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY May 10

Nature´s rights in law – processes and practice

9.00 Coffee and registration

10.00 We are here. Welcome and introduction

10.30 Ecological Jurisprudence: Going beyond Mechanistic Law
Henrik Hallgren, Lodyn

10.40 The Lake Erie Bill of Rights – People rising for nature in the US
Mari Margil, Community Environment Legal Defense Fund

11.00 How The Amazon became a living breathing entity with Rights in the eyes of the Law
Gabriela Eslava Bejarano, Dejusticia

11.30 To address climate change, does Culture need a new relationship with Nature?
Panel discussion with AnnaKarin Hammar, Per Johansson, Parul Sharma and Mari Margil, moderated by Louise Hård af Segerstad.

12.00 LUNCH

13.00 A meeting with Mother Earth – outdoor activity

13.45 Parallell workshops:

Songs of the Earth – Ecopedagogy in action
Nature’s Rights in international frameworks
Saami moratorium on mining – the Násavaerie story
Rights of nature for Land owners – partnership with the Land
Evolving Law of Ocean Rights and Responsibilities

16.00 Tribunal on the Rights of Lake Vättern

18.00 Break

19.00 Dinner

21.00 Remembrance and thanksgiving for Polly Higgins

Khalil Ghibrans The Prophet
Annika Lykta

SATURDAY May 11

The worldview reflected in Rights of Nature

from 7.00 BREAKFAST

8.30 Morning celebration for the Earth (outdoors)

9.15 Tribunal on the Rights of Lake Vättern – decision from the judges

10.00 Peace with the Earth: indigenous perspectives on Rights of Nature
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

11.00 Parallell workshops:

A European Hub within the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
I am Nature, I am Artificial – am I Aware?
Ecopsychology, animism and the Soul of the World
Earth Rights, Sápmi and Indigenous Leadership – next steps
Inventing the Universities we need

12.30 LUNCH

13.30 Ecocide in Sápmi – a report

13.40 How do we co-create harmony with nature? A Learning Ecosystem

Interactive session: where do we go from here?

15.30 Fika and closure.

WORKSHOPS

Rights of Nature for Land Owners: Partnership with the land

For a long time land ownership has been defined as control and dominance. Can the Rights of Nature approach open up for a new perspective on ownership, as a special kind of relationship with the land, built on partnership and respect? Do we need to replace the term “ownership” with a new word? This interactive workshop is focused on what Rights of Nature might mean for landowners in practical
terms. We will explore ways to relate to the land, such as permaculture and ecoforestry, that manifest a respect for the Rights of Nature. As participant you will be a part of a group thinking about how Rights of Nature can be put in practice, in relationship to the land. Henrik Hallgren leads the workshop together with Mikael Karlsson. They will present an initiative for certification of land based on a rights of nature approach.

Songs of the Earth - Ecopedagogy in Action

Earth Rights Activism is about liberating ourselves as co-creators of a sustainable, planetary culture of peace – the Great Learning of our times. As we explore how to give our ecosystems a voice through rights of nature, we also learn to make our own voices heard as Earth Ambassadors – carriers of a new vision and story about a peaceful relationship between humans and nature. Using different creative expressions to give voice to this story, is a powerful and meaningful kind of activism. In this workshop we explore how to co-create a ”learning ecosystem” of songs, sounds and rhythms. A common story colored by our unique individual contributions. We will discover that making a difference is not only fulfilling, it is fun, healthy and adventurous. Led by Niklas Högberg and Peder Karlsson.

Earth Rights, Sápmi and Indigenous Leadership - Next Steps

How can indigenous people lead the way to a sustainable future for all, through rights of nature? Indigenous people around the world are discovering earth rights as a way of explaining their worldview, in a way which can be understood in a western context. One milestone in this is the decision in the Sámi Parliament to stand behind The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. In this seminar, a panel consisting of members from the Sámi people as well as indigenous cultures in North America and New Zealand, will explore and discuss how to take a next step when it comes to indigenous leadership for Earth Rights – in partnership and collaboration with the global Earth Rights movement. Participants: Stefan Mikaelsson, former chairman of the Sámi Parliament, Sara Ajnnak, Sámi artist and activist, Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environment Network, and Nikolas Berg from the Swedish Rights of Nature Network.

Evolving Law of Ocean Rights and Responsibilities - Indigenous and Canadian Examples

This workshop, led by Linda Nowlan and Georgia Lloyd-Smith, will discuss rights of nature through the lens of the 75 highly endangered southern resident killer whales who live in the Salish Sea. Current laws have not saved these whales. Respecting nature’s rights may change the balance. We will explore synergies between Indigenous legal traditions and rights of nature in this interactive workshop and discuss: How would we treat our oceans and whales if we saw them as rights holders? How would our actions change if oceans and whales were granted legal rights? What can Indigenous legal traditions teach us about how to live in good relationships with the ocean and its inhabitants? We will present examples from the Pacific where coastal Indigenous nations are reimagining their relationships with the ocean, such as the Heiltsuk Nation’s Oceans Act, titled “Respecting and Taking Care of Our Ocean Relatives”, which sets out their gvilas (laws), and the Haida Nation’s designation of Haida Protected Areas to care for supernatural beings integral to their culture and governance. We will also discuss the Rights of the Salish Sea Framework, which aims to bridge between Indigenous and other legal traditions, and innovative Marine Planning Partnership plans, which have forged new relationships between Indigenous and other orders of government in Canada.

Creating an European hub for the Rights of Nature

This interactive workshop aims to gather and help mobilize people and organizations of the European Rights of Nature movement in order to co-create a regional Hub for collective mobilization, support, positive impact and advancement in Rights of Nature actions and campaigns in Europe. The regional Hub aims to become a semi-autonomous, decentralized and mobilizing space which, together with other hubs, form creative clusters within GARN pursuing different elements of a shared agenda all around the world. Organized by Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) and Naturens Rättigheter i Sverige (Rights of Nature Sweden). Facilitated by: Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN International, USA), Valérie Cabanes (GARN, France). Online Zoom participation will be possible during this workshop.

Ecopsychology, animism and the Soul of the World

Ecopsychology calls for the Voice of the Earth to be included in the environmental debate. At this key time of challenge, we need to
engage with both the body and the soul of nature. Learning to work with them together can radically re-awaken our relationship to the Earth and help us discover new solutions, new inspirations, and new possibilities. This is not a luxury bonus or exotic sideline, it is an essential core practice. We invite a way of life where we are no longer isolated individuals but participating in the whole. By re-connecting to our natural community including humans, nature, and spirits, we turn a feeling of longing into a sense of belonging. The workshop, led by Zara Waldebäck, Jonathan Horwitz and Henrik Hallgren, will explore ways of re-connecting with Earth through shamanic and ecopsychological practices.

Rights of Nature in international frameworks

The state of ecosystems and nature conservation is regularly discussed in international forums. This workshop aims to investigate how Rights of Nature could be applied in international agreements and framworks such as the Convention for Biological Diversity, IPBES and the Global Pact for the Environment. We will gather experts in international conservation, and representatives from government, NGOs and others working with biodiversity and rights issues. Louise Hård af Segerstad, Maria Schultz and Pella Thiel leads the workshop.

I am Nature, I am Artificial - Am I Aware?

As human beings we literally participate in nature in every breath, with every meal, with every visit to a toilet. We also participate in nature in our way of experiencing reality. And we live very much in our minds – also literally: we live in an actual artificial environment that we create and sustain. The latter often seems to alienate us from our simultaneous and inescapable natural existence. It is as if we are pulled in two directions. In this workshop, led by Per Johansson and Louise Hård af Segerstad, we explore how this dual pull lives in us, both personally and collectively.

Inventing the Universities We Need

This workshop will invite participants to work creatively together to invent a university adequate to contemporary ecological crises and to recognising the rights of the Earth. It will offer an opportunity to consider the sorts of institutions and practices that would facilitate encounters between different forms of knowledge, different practices of cultural learning and different ways of being in the world; practices that might build capacity to acknowledge the loss and grief of the current ecocide and to find new ways to act (and not act) in current conditions. The workshop will invite participants to reflect on the educational experiences and relationships that have been significant in their lives, to intertwine these with theories of learning, to develop principles that might inform the ideal processes and practices, and to begin to imagine what institutional (or anti-institutional) forms these might take. Participants will be encouraged to dream, to imagine possibilities, as well as to work backwards from these to consider what might be needed to invent such a ‘university’ in the timescale required for action on climate change. The central purpose of such work is to build opportunities for dialogue amongst the participants around the role of learning in the work that they do, to strengthen and deepen their understanding of each other, and to create the beginnings of spaces of possibility for relationships of change. The outcomes of this process may take the form of a found poem, an invocation of a new possibility. Led by Susanna Barrineau and Keri Facer.

Saami Moratorium on mining - the Násavaerie story

Since time immemorial, the Nása Mountain has served as grazing pastures for reindeer herding Saami. Through a system of ecologically sustainable hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry, this area has become an important site where Saami have co-existed peacefully with nature on its own terms. From a Saami viewpoint, this area is also marred by a long and painful history. The Swedish State realised the monetary value of the Nása Mountain in the 1600’s, after having stumbled on silver in the area. In June 2017, the reindeer community in Nása mountain declared a moratorium over the Nása Mountain. As an introduction to this workshop, Sara Ajnnak from Svaipa sameby will share her personal story of connection with the Násavaerie mountain, and how she found inspiration to protect her local community. To be followed by a sharing session – how can we achieve transformation through our personal connections with Mother Nature?

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CO-CREATORS

TOM GOLDTOOTH

Tom BK Goldtooth, Dine’/Dakota, United States is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, an international indigenous NGO based in Bemidji, Minnesota near the border of United States/Canada. A social change maker within the Native American community for over 36 years, has become an internationally renowned environmental, climate and economic justice leader, working with many Indigenous People and social movements around the world. Tom co-produced the award-winning documentary, Drumbeat for Mother Earth, which addresses the effects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous people. Co-founder of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Nationality: United States. President of the Fourth Rights of Nature Tribunal in Bonn, Germany.

KERI FACER

Keri Facer is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol and the current Zennström Climate Change Leadership professor at Uppsala University. She works on rethinking the relationship between formal educational institutions and wider society and is particularly concerned with the sorts of knowledge that may be needed to address contemporary environmental, economic, social and technological changes.

PER JOHANSSON

Per thought he was going to be a zoologist. But some rather esoteric experiences made it necessary for him to delve into the world of the mind, rather than that of nature. After a while he realised that mind and nature must be the same, in some strange way. What to do? Well, he avoided the university as much as possible. Even so, he got a PhD in human ecology at Lund University, eventually finishing a thesis called The Lure of Origins. He left the university in 2007 and is now a consultant, writer, speaker, maker of radio programmes, and an enthusiastic collaborator with various artists. Now and then he also works as an independent expert for the European Commission on matters of culture. His pod radio shows with well known culture journalist Eric Schüldt – Människan och maskinen, Kunskapens träd and Myter & Mysterier – have acquired something of a cult status in Sweden.

NIKOLAS BERG

Nikolas Berg is a practitioner of ecopedagogy, transformative leadership and inner transition since 30 years. Early on he got involved with strategic and innovative organizations to implement social change to end hunger and poverty. Nikolas is the co-author of ”Rights of Nature – When Law Brings Peace With Earth”, with Ingrid Berg and Martin Hultman. It is the first book in Swedish about this legal innovation, the Earth Rights Movement and Ecopedagogy as a tool for co-creating the system shift needed. He and Ingrid are co-leading courses about rights of nature at Färnebo Folkhögskola, together with Carmen Blanco Valer.

HANA BEGOVIC

Hana Begović is the Organizer at the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, in Ecuador, and holds a degree in Sustainable Development, Globalization and Human Rights. She has also studied Latin American movements and been engaged in various initiatives in Sweden, Bosnia and Ecuador concerning women’s rights, indigenous rights, climate change and urban sustainability. Recently, she was the logistics coordinator for the launch of the historical proposal Kawsak Sacha in Quito, a proposal developed by the Native Kichwa People of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is also currently co-developing a project for solar energy in Amazonian communities.

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.

MARIAM CARLSSON KANYAMA

Mariam Carlsson Kanyama holds an LLM in international environmental law from Lund University, Sweden. She participated in the International rights of Nature tribunal in Paris (2015) and Bonn (2017) as part of her work with the network End ecocide on Earth. She is a founding member of Swedish Earth Lawyers (SERL).

LINDA NOWLAN

Linda Nowlan is a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law in Vancouver, where she leads the Marine Program. She advises environmental groups and First Nations on marine protection laws and legal strategies to advance marine co-governance. Her current law reform initiatives focus on strengthening Canada’s Oceans and Fisheries Acts, passing new oil tanker moratorium legislation, introducing a provincial coastal and marine law, and assisting with the completion of the Heiltsuk Nation’s Respecting and Taking Care of Our Ocean Relatives Act. Linda Nowlan led a team to produce a plain language Guide to international environmental treaties, and wrote the IUCN Law and Policy Paper The Legal Regime for Arctic Environmental Protection.

GUNILLA HÖGBERG BJÖRK

Gunilla Högberg Björck is a lawyer and 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.

PIA BJÖRSTRAND

Pia Björstrand is a practising lawyer. Her heart has always been burning for Nature’s rights, she just didn’t know it until she took the course “The Earth is the home of the soul” and found new hope in her lifelong struggle for the Earth. Pia has been an engaged environmental activist since ages, is now spokesperson for the Swedish organisation “Klimataktion”, an active member of the local Transition network and a member of the local board of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. Pia is founder of Swedish Earth Right Lawyers and #Lawyersforfuture in Sweden.

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.

VALERIE CABANES

Valérie Cabanes is a legal expert in international law, specializing in human rights. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and one of the experts of the UN Harmony with Nature initiative. After two decades in NGO fieldwork, she launched in 2013 a European citizen initiative on the crime of ecocide in France then co-founded in 2015 the NGO Notre Affaire à Tous at the initiative of the “Case of the century” (Climate case against the french government supported by 2 millions citizens). In 2015, she contributed to the drafting of the project of a Universal Declaration of Humankind Rights (and duties) and to a proposal for amendments to the Statute of the International Criminal Court on the crime of ecocide.

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.

ZARA WALDEBÄCK

Zara has been working shamanically since 2005. As well as teaching shamanism, she helped to set up and run the International Shamanic Community (ISC) and is a writer and filmmaker. She has published two books on creative writing. She also teaches the use of story as a healing tool that helps us hear Nature and connect to the invisible side of Life. Together with Jonathan Horwitz she has taught many eco-shamanic courses at Schumacher College in the UK and at their retreat center Åsbacka in southern Sweden, where they help people to heal and re-establish connection to Nature. www.shamanism.dk

MIKAEL KARLSSON

Mikael has have always loved forests, ecosystems based forestry is Nature’s Rights put in practice, he says. Ecoforestry expert Mikael Karlsson is an author, lecturer and advisor in the area of ecosystem based forestry. He is also the founder of Ecoforestry Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to promote an ecosystem based forest management, through information, communication and practical examples.

GEORGIA LLOYD-SMITH

Georgia Lloyd-Smith is part of West Coast Environmental Law’s Aboriginal and Natural Resources law team. She is excited to be working on the RELAW Project (Revitalizing Indigenous Law for Law, Air, and Water) and to be working to protect our precious coast. Georgia believes in the power of human connection to affect change, and sees law as an essential component of this work. She spends her thinking time in spaces where cultures, values, and ideas converge, in particular in the fields of Indigenous, environmental, health, and human rights law.

ERENA RANGIMARIE REREOMAKI RHÖSE

Erena is a Maori woman, native to Aotearoa New Zealand. She considers herself a daughter to the Whanagnui River since her river was given legal rights in 2017. It was her great great grandmother RereOmaki who signed the Treaty of Waitangi, in1840 for the Wanganui region, with the British crown Queen Victoria and other Maori chiefs of Aotearo, New Zealand. Erena is living in Sweden since 38 years and has been a guest lecturer in Ecophilosophy. at Karlstad University 1983-2012. Erena is a matekite tohonga, shaman, spiritual leader, grandmother elder, who teaches the love and spirit of Mother Earth. She is a member of Arctic Shaman Circle in Norway and promotes indigenous, shamanism that works for Mother Earth and Nature. She is often invited to conferences all around the world where she has given lectures about the beautiful and spiritual Maori concepts on Papatuanuku, Mother Earth. Erena has close contact with the Maori royal family, their royal highnesses King Tuheitea and his wife Atawhai and she believes it is so important that the Maori king leads the Maori people because the new era of Maori is through his spiritual leadership, which is deeply connected to the land and the water.

LOUISE HÅRD AF SEGERSTAD

Louise Hård af Segerstad works at Albaeco, a NGO working with research communication in close collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm university. Albaeco works as a bridging organisation and Louise has has worked with many different types of assignments and collaborations, all based on research about humans and our role in the biosphere. As much in the world is about relationships, Louise has come to realise that the ways we communicate are a crucial part of changing the human relationship to the rest of nature. So a lot of her work is about finding forms for collaboration between different actors and creating common learning processes.

SARA AJNNAK

Sara Ajnnak is a Yoik artist from Sápmi and the initiator of Nása moratorium, a geographic territorium on the Norwegian side of the border where her village have their reindeer pasture land. Sara, who grew up in a reindeer herding family, describes her ancestry like this:

“My people are the people of the sun and the wind. We have lived in our land Sápmi as long as we can remember. Our ancestors taught us to respect the nature and not leave visible traces along the way of life. By not taking more than what we need, we have maintained the ecological balance in Sápmi.” Saras album “Gulldalit can you hear me” (2018) was Grammy-nominated in Sweden. Sara has received the Västerbotten county cultural prize in music 2018, and the Sami Council’s cultural scholarship.

GABRIELA ESLAVA BEJARANO

Gabriela Eslava is one of the researchers who made the first legal action on climate change and the rights of future generations in Latin America. She also belongs to the group of 25 young plaintiffs of this legal action, which ended with the Colombian Amazon being granted rights. She is a lawyer who has worked in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, with initiatives and community participation in environmental matters, economic incentives for the conservation of biodiversity, payment for environmental services, right to water and animal rights. Her topics of interest are related to the formulation of public policies on environmental matters and constitutional litigation. She currently works as a researcher in the Litigation area at Dejusticia (Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad) in Bogotá.

JONATHAN HORWITZ

Jonathan has a master’s degree in anthropology and has been working with shamanism since 1972. He has worked as a teacher and field researcher at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and founded the Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies. Jonathan is a frequent contributor to “Sacred Hoop” magazine and was for many years the European Editor for “Journal of Shamanic Practice.” Together with Zara Waldebäck he has taught many eco-shamanic courses at Schumacher College in the UK and at their retreat center Åsbacka in southern Sweden, where they help people to heal and re-establish connection to Nature. www.shamanism.dk

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.

STEFAN MIKAELSSON

Stefan Mikaelsson, with roots in the Indigenous Sami nation of Sweden, has worked with Sami policy since 1986 as a way to contribute and share his knowledge with the Sami community. He is very passionate about the Sami forests below the Lapland boundary and dedicated to protecting these beautiful lands. During the years 1996-2009, Stefan was Vice Chairman of the Sami Parliament Bureau, and in the years 2009-2017, he was the chairman of the Sami Parliament. He was a participant and presenter at the Fourth International Rights of Nature Tribunal held in Bonn, Germany in 2017.

SANNA BARRINEAU

Sanna Barrineau works with education for sustainable development and is the project coordinator of the Zennström Climate Change Leadership professorship. Her interests lie in creating institutions that care and the kinds of knowledges and learning processes may help us act more care-fully.

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 coordinator of the swedish Rights of Nature network and member of UN Harmony with Nature Initiative. She mostly likes practising permaculture on her family farm in Stockholm archipelago.

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.

ANNIKA LYKTA

Annika Lykta is an actor, director and musican, writer and project coordinator. She is a member of the physical theatre company Långsjö theatre, known for working close to interdisciplinary sustainability research with issues like: how can theatre and art be a partof the transition to sustainability? At the Earth Rights Conference in 2017 the company performed ”The fisherman and his wife” This time Annika comes with pieces from her other company, NAjKAs repertoire, NAjKA has made a music and storytelling performance out of Kahlil Gibrans The Prophet.

ANNA KARIN HAMMAR

Rev.Dr., Church of Sweden

HOSTS

PARTNERS

”Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.”

from the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth

Declaration by the Earth Rights Conference participants 2017

We, participants of the 2017 Earth Rights Conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, have gathered from five continents, twelve countries and indigenous peoples such as the Sámi people in Scandinavia and the Sarayaku people and Quechua nation of South America.

Because of the accelerating socio-ecological challenges and wounds caused by the modern human-centered worldview which has emphasized our separation from each other and from nature,

We recognize and support:

The need of an earth-centered worldview emphasizing the interconnectedness of all beings, as well as the urgent need to implement this worldview in our legal systems,

The indigenous peoples’ knowledge and rights to territories and organizational forms and livelihoods based on a harmonious relationship with nature,
The urgent and historical opportunity to gather around Earth Rights* as a framework to restore the relationship between humans and nature.

We commit ourselves to living in harmony with nature, each other and ourselves, as well as to the co-creation of a common Earth Rights culture.

We declare to be the change we want to see in the world through:

Learning to govern ourselves in alignment with the Laws of Nature;
Listening to and speaking for Nature;
Connecting and cooperating across borders;
Healing past wounds, individually and collectively, in order to move forward;
Standing up and taking action for Earth Rights with love.

Today we call on all peoples, organizations and governments to join us in this great undertaking and take adequate measures. We call on the United Nations to adopt the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth for the wellbeing of our Earth Community and future generations, and in honor of our common home.

* Earth Rights include the rights of all of our planet’s ecosystems and all of its inhabitants. We envision Earth Rights as working in harmony with, reinforcing and securing all other rights of peoples and species.