Should rivers have personhood?
About this episode
The episode explores the concept of granting legal personhood to rivers and the implications of such rights.
River systems around the world are under stress from various factors ranging from pollution, to agriculture, to extractive industries. In some parts of the world there are regulations to help protect rivers, but in a lot of cases these are just preventative measures for a system already seriously degraded. Another way to protect rivers which has been receiving attention is to give them legal rights, like those we associate with being a person. These rights could include the right to flow freely and the right to regenerate. Corporations have long been recognised as legal persons and increasingly this has been extended to environmental entities. There are different pathways to secure legal personhood, from changing a country’s constitution, to changing local law or to implementing a new ruling on an existing law, but as to whether any of these provide protection in practise, often depends on the way humans respond to the river. If a river can have rights and responsibilities, could they in turn face legal action from humans for failing to meet their own legal duties? Should rivers have personhood? (Photo: A wide view of the Turag River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, lined with small boats…
Topics covered
- river rights
- environmental law
- personhood
- pollution
- legal rights
Keywords
- rivers
- personhood
- legal rights
- environment
- pollution
- agriculture
- extractive industries
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BBC World Service
Places: Turag River, Bangladesh
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