All RONA18 works and Regional Responses, need to incorporate one or more of the following inter-connected themes:
Reveal, reflect and critique the current flawed paradigm of western law, which: |
Imagine and create the paradigm we are proposing – Earth laws and rights of nature: |
| Privileges humans over other forms of life | Humans are one part of nature – interconnected, interdependent with the Earth Community |
| Has created governance systems that do not reflect how the natural world works | Human governance systems respect bio-regional health and live within ecological limits |
| Is built on the idea that humans ‘own’ nature – nature is property, objectified, commodified (bought and sold), caged, fenced, destroyed | Non-human agency is vital, the non-human world belongs to no-one; vibrant biodiversity is critical to life on earth |
| Gives ‘rights’ to humans and human created fictions – corporations, ships. While plants, animals, ecosystems have no rights, are often invisible in the eyes of the law | All life and life supporting systems on Earth have “a right to exist, thrive and evolve” |
| Privileges western legal, scientific and evidentiary frameworks of knowledge | Respects indigenous knowledge, human ‘lived’ experience, emotional and spiritual connections |
| Legalises the destruction of vital ecosystems and life support systems | Holds all life sacred and balances reasonable human needs with the rights of the natural world to exist and evolve; would never prize human wants over ecosystem destruction |
