Natural Rights Research Articles

CRIMINAL, CIVIL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE PROTECTION OF UNBORN LIFE IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO

Background: Human life is a natural right, and as a fundamental right, its loss entails the loss of all other rights. Consequently, human life is protected by international and national legal acts. This study will approach the chosen topic from a critical thinking angle. Its purpose is to present the basic notions of life, tackle the protection of life through positive legal norms, examine the legal treatment of the unauthorised termination of pregnancy, and provide an overview of data related to such terminations. Furthermore, we will examine whether current legal provisions in Republic of Kosovo effectively safeguard life or, instead, permit the termination of unborn life. The topic will be approached from the perspectives of civil law and the socioeconomic aspect of this phenomenon. Given that Kosovo was once an Autonomous Region of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, we will draw a comparative parallel in terms of legal reforms. The importance of this study will be evident based on the fact that studies of this interrelated nature of such a topic are lacking. Consequently, such a study will be relevant to legislation and legal practice. Methods: The selected topic will be treated by applying the historical-legal method, the normative method, the comparative method, the method of analysis and the synthesis method. Through the application of these study methods, an effort will be made to achieve the goal and the study objective, always with the aim of providing concrete answers to the research questions and validating the raised hypotheses. Results and Conclusions: While it must be accepted that termination of pregnancy is not murder, it is crucial to recognise that if it occurs at advanced stages of fetal development, it cannot be called anything other than murder. In addition to the legal fragility facing Kosovar society, there is also a notable weakness in the punitive policy. This policy, in its effort to be humane towards the perpetrators of criminal offences, may fail to achieve its intended objectives. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a shift in legislative policy concerning certain antisocial phenomena. Such a change would inherently lead to a reevaluation of punitive measures, especially considering that the criminal offence of unauthorised termination of pregnancy continues to be present in our society.

Redefining human–nature relations: decolonial perspectives on Inter-American Court environmental jurisprudence

ABSTRACT Debates surrounding environmental protection and its intersection with human rights have gained significant traction in the past decade, coinciding with the advancement of decolonial thought across political, academic and social spheres. These discussions and agendas have become intertwined as humanity faces unprecedented threats to essential global ecosystems while indigenous peoples and traditional black communities, often the primary stewards of the environment, seek emancipation from historical violence. This dynamic struggle between resilience and violence, along with the link between nature and human rights, is also evident within the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Drawing upon decolonial insights and employing a dialectical method, our analysis aims to scrutinize the Court’s jurisprudence to understand its approach concerning the connection between human and environmental rights.

Realising Rights of Nature across and beneath the Southern Ocean

ABSTRACT If the philosophical, ecological, moral and ethical imperatives for Rights of Nature (RON) in the Antarctic can be argued to be clear, given the limitations and failures of contemporary instrumental environmental management, the modalities of operationalising and applying these to the Antarctic marine environment, commonly understood as the Southern Ocean, are not. Securing progressive environmental policies is very much harder in the marine environment than ashore, everywhere. Structural complications of the existing Antarctic regime structure and the historic and contemporary regional geopolitics add to the challenges in the Southern Ocean, beyond those posed by RON. Classical Antarctic framings cast the Southern Ocean as either the area south of the Antarctic Convergence or as merely the area south of 60° South Latitude. Neither suffices for the purposes of RON. Antarctic biota cross even the Antarctic Convergence. In doing so, they enter spaces subject to extra-Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) international legal regimes including Regional Fisheries Management Organisations abutting the ATS area and/or coastal state jurisdictions in the sub-Antarctic. They also penetrate deep below the levels of the ocean hitherto operationally managed by the ATS. Even ‘within’ the ATS geographical area, the deep seabed and particular taxa (cetaceans) are formally subject to other regimes. The area of relevance for RON is thus neither coterminous with the geographical area nor the jurisdictional competence of the ATS. The relevant geographical area is a ‘Greater Southern Ocean’. The politico-legal context across multiple regimes meaningful to RON is extraordinarily complex and multi-tiered. Advancing a RON discourse across this huge and complex field likely entails a fragmented engagement with discrete jurisdictional and institutional entities, albeit an engagement informed by a unitary and coherent understanding and purpose. Necessary as this is, it will be neither simple nor quick.

Rights of nature, indigenous communities and land property: legal perspectives from Latin America

Abstract This article presents some dialogues between the recognition of rights of nature, indigenous communities and land property rights in the context of Latin American legal innovations in recent years. To do so this paper is framed within a socio-legal perspective that involves the analysis of a corpus of documents made up of regulatory texts at national and local level, including constitutions, laws, and ordinances related to the topics as well as relevant court rulings.

Ecofeminism: Resistance to Ecological and Female Oppression

Eco-feminism is a movement and an ideology against the oppression of nature and females. It shows a link between nature and females that are exploited and oppressed by males in the world. It discovers that the position of the nature and women is similar and both are treated as submissive and subservient subjects. It is related to masculine domination in the society. Historically, it appeared as a great political movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the west. It was Francoise d'Eaubonne who first developed the term ecological feminism in 1972 discussing that the destruction of the planet is due to the profit motive of the males. Since both nature and female are violated and suppressed by patriarchal or male superiority ideology, ecofeminism as a movement appears powerful to resist the oppression of both nature and female. The principal objective of the research is to explore how ecofeminism acts a defense for preserving the rights of both women and nature. Hence, this paper explores how ecofeminism as a movement and ideology defends the rights of women and nature that should be preserved for the preservation of ecology and human rights on the earth. According to Greta Gaard, eco-feminism provides a theoretical bridge for women working in the related movements of environmentalism, animal liberation and feminism. Linking both rights of nature and women, it includes the voices of trees, animals and women and fights for the liberation of them resisting any force against the exploitation and oppression of both nature and women. Therefore, becoming aware of Gaard’s views on ecofemenism, her theory of ecofeminism can be applied as a major theoretical lens for the broad theoretical framework. The major finding of the paper is that ecofeminism as a theory or movement or ideology is needed to fight to resist the oppression of women and nature globally to maintain ecology rights of women.

Artificial Intelligence and Analytic Theology in Chinese Context

Abstract The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing quickly in China, and it has challenged our understanding of human nature and personhood. These challenges underlie some of the negative views which some Christians have towards AI, and these negative views have contributed to the resistance to the development of AI among some segments of global society. This article proposes various ways in which the resources of Analytic Theology (the application of analytic philosophy to Christian theology) can help theologians in China address a list of research questions that AI poses for Christian theology, in engagement with Chinese philosophy. These include developing the arguments for substance dualism, which can potentially offer a metaphysical ground for affirming the distinctiveness of human nature and human rights in comparison with AI, an issue which has been debated by secular ethicists and which has significant implications on societal considerations concerning AI.

Pachamama Allied to Human Rights Education: Applicability of The Indigenous Worldview As An Eco-Legal Proposal For Interpretation and Way of Living

Objective: To propose an approach to teaching human rights and environmental education together, based on knowledge about Pachamama. Theoretical Framework: Legal documents that support human rights education and the concept of Pachamama. To this end, the authors Capra and Mattei (2018), Zaffaroni (2017), Benevides (2022) and Moraes (2018) were used, with the same aim of interconnecting the rights of nature with human rights. Method: To carry out this article, we started from bibliographical and documentary research, through studies of legislation and literature on the subject, using the hypothetical-deductive method. Results and Discussion: The research envisaged the proposal of a practice of Human Rights Education combined with practices of Environmental Education in order to promote the awareness and emancipation of the subject in harmony with nature, interpreting it as Pachamama. Research Implications: To direct a proposal through a State Bill to add a specific curricular component to work with Human Rights and the promotion of their culture combined with Environmental Education practices and knowledge about Pachamama in the early years of Elementary School, 8th and 9th grades. Originality/Value: This study contributes to innovation in the teaching of human rights in schools linked to a systemic view of nature, which considers human beings and values ​​their interconnection with the environment. The relevance and value of this research are evidenced by the way in which the law is applied from an eco-legal perspective.

Assessing the awareness level, knowledge, and attitudes of the university community for sustainable development in Higher Educational Institutions in India—A review paper

Background: Sustainability plays a crucial role in the development of the education sector. It is analyzed that higher education institutions (HEIs) continuously working on the adoption of sustainable practices for carrying out business operations in the long run. Agenda 2030 is a comprehensive, multifaceted strategy that serve as an important framework for the comparison to uphold different principles. Additionally, the UN 2030 Agenda concerning sustainable development is introduced as global idea of balanced development. The 2030 Agenda and SDGs representing the program related to global development programs. Higher education institutions also working on the adoption of sustainable development perspective and the issues linked with them. Aim: The main aim of the study is to determine the level of knowledge, awareness, and attitude of the university community for achieving sustainability in HEIs. Policy Implementation: Adopting sustainable behavior is encouraged when policies are implemented well. Universities have the authority to develop and implement sustainability policies that set guidelines and requirements. Topics like waste reduction, environmentally friendly transportation, and environmentally friendly buying may be covered by the sustainability policies. Acting sustainably is encouraged among university community members through the implementation of sustainability policies. Conclusion: Findings stated efforts across sectors for the promotion of awareness and alignment with the 2030 Agenda consider a comprehensive strategy for addressing humanity, nature, and human rights. In higher education institutions, the role of education emerges as pivotal, developing green practices, development of campuses, and attracting students globally. In HEIs green practices are carried out for the development of the campus and activities in the future terms. Universities also supported in the adoption of sustainability in working education institutes international students are also attracted to them. It is identified that educators are playing an important role in achieving sustainability aspects in the education sector.

Reframing the Antarctic as polar planetary commons: moving beyond rights of nature

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper seeks to unravel the processes of assigning rights to nature (RoN) in the polar context through recognising how current efforts of assigning these are steeped in property relations and express an inherent anthropocentrism. The paper critically synthesises ideas from across the disciplines of environmental law, geography and cultural theory to understand how the process of assigning rights to nature takes place – or effectively how rights of nature makes for Antarctic geographies today and into the future. The Antarctic is currently promoted, depicted and popularly imagined as a pristine wilderness. As such, it represents the final frontier of techno industrial capitalism on the planet. In this context, the wilderness qualities of the region need to be confronted as places of our making. This calls for a radical realignment of the assignation of rights to nature, whereby any diminutive apprehensions of nature or objective measures of wilderness need to be countered. Any assignation of rights needs to be informed by how values and representations are continually relationally constituted and have a planetary dimension. This reframing implies that places do not possess some inherent or authentic value, or rights. The way they are valued is made here and now, there and then, in the moments we make sense of and relate to place. In this frame of ongoing valuing, this paper explores how RoN takes place in the polar regions, revealing the Antarctic as a planetary hydrocommons. Underpinned by notions of geopower and sympoietic earth jurisprudence these planetary hydrocommons are illustrated through ice and the question posed is how our ongoing relation configuration to place can feature in Antarctic policy and governance.

“Cats in congress or penguins in parliament”? Towards the just representation of more-than-humans in Antarctic environmental governance

ABSTRACT Representation is a core component of Rights of Nature (RoN). While giving a human voice to more-than-humans might be seen as anthropocentric, RoN is one of the best tools available in current legal frameworks and institutions to safeguard the interests of more-than-humans. However, challenges arise when looking at the Antarctic. In particular, the absence of a permanent population, a State, and an Indigenous people makes the designation of an Antarctic representative a delicate matter. More-than-humans are the only permanent residents of the Antarctic while being paradoxically excluded from Antarctic decision-making processes and institutions. This article explores the issue of ‘just representation’ of more-than-humans within the Antarctic Treaty System, based on theories of multispecies justice focusing on recognition and participation. It develops the political, legal, and theoretical frameworks for a just environmental governance in the Antarctic, looking at RoN to support some aspects of the ‘just representation’ of more-than-humans in the Antarctic.

Rights for nature or protecting people’s rights?: The operationalization of rights of nature in non-indigenous communities in the United States

As the Rights of Nature movement gains political traction globally, researchers must examine how this transnational movement to extend rights to nature or natural entities is being operationalized in place. Proponents of the rights of nature contend transferring rights to nature constitutes a paradigm shift in human-environment interactions and will lead to solutions directed at the root causes of environmental problems. Critics contend that these rights-based governance structures have the potential to do more harm than good for environmental protection depending on the cultural and legal frameworks within which rights of nature are enacted. In this paper, I examine how rights of nature have been operationalized in non-Indigenous communities in the United States through an analysis of rights of nature ordinances passed in these communities between 2006 and 2020. Drawing on theoretical engagements with rights I demonstrate how the reliance on universalizing human rights frameworks and anti-corporation rhetoric both distinguish these ordinances from the broader rights of nature movement and center the rights of people to have access to a clean environment rather than the intrinsic rights of nature. In conclusion, I explore alternatives to how rights of nature are currently operationalized in non-Indigenous communities in the United States and call for increased research on the implications and impacts of rights of nature ordinances to assess whether they achieve their stated goals.

The principle of justice in the construction of a special legal status (historical and theoretical aspect)

The subject of the study is the principle of justice. The idea of justice is revealed in the context of the legal regulation of the rights and obligations of persons with special legal status. The essential aspects of the principle of equity at the individual and regulatory level are analyzed. It is noted that the principle of justice in relation to special legal status means the following: 1) any specific rights and obligations included in it must be established on certain grounds; 2) the content of these rights and obligations must correspond to the nature of these grounds. Thus, violations of justice in the construction of a special legal status can be of two kinds: either arbitrary (groundless) granting of rights or assignment of duties, or, if there are such grounds, excessive or insufficient nature of rights and duties. The research methodology includes the following approaches: comparative analysis, abstraction, deduction, induction, idealization, formalization, axiomatic and logical method. It seems important to distinguish between the aspects of justice: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative characteristic of justice is to ensure that the grounds of a special legal status, on the one hand, and its content, on the other, are homogeneous in their value nature; for example, that an act of positive social significance (merit) generates a positive legal assessment expressed in the provision of additional benefits (encouragement), and vice versa. The quantitative measurement of justice assumes that the volume of social benefits or encumbrances inherent in a special legal status reflected, at least with some degree of accuracy, the similar significance of what served as the basis for this. From a practical point of view, the fairness of a special legal status can be revealed at two levels: individual (law enforcement) or normative (law-making).

Rights of nature in the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights: Understanding the ecocentric approach to the right to a healthy environment

AbstractThe recognition of the right to a healthy environment as an autonomous and justiciable right in Advisory Opinion OC‐23/17 represents the turning point of the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights towards the adoption of an ecocentric approach. This article examines how the interpretation of the right to a healthy environment suggests the acknowledgement of Nature as a holder of rights under the American Convention on Human Rights. First, it analyses how the Inter‐American Court has addressed environmental protection in its jurisprudence, through procedural and substantive rights. Second, it studies the ecocentric interpretation of the right to a healthy environment in the Advisory Opinion OC‐23/17 and in the case La Oroya v Peru. Lastly, it explores what are the consequences of understanding Nature as a holder of rights for the complaint procedure before the Inter‐American Court.

The Rights of Nature: A call for a policy of mutually assured flourishing

The Rights of Nature: A call for a policy of mutually assured flourishing

What is a Right?

ABSTRACT This paper argues for a theory of natural rights on which they are explained in terms of reasons supplied by rational consent. When B has a claim-right against A that A φ, A ’s non-consent is not a reason for B not to simply make A φ. This theory solves a puzzle that defeats alternative views, including standard will and interest theories, the demand theory of rights, and the view that rights are irreducible or primitive.

Aotearoa’s Western governance structure: a challenge to Te Kōpuka’s allyships

Te Awa Tupua (The Whanganui River Claims Settlement Act 2017), which granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River) is often discussed as a leading example of the Rights of Nature movement, which aims to grant rights to non-humans. Rather than discussing Te Awa Tupua in relation to Rights of Nature, this article offers new data on the relationships between Māori (Indigenous peoples of New Zealand), tauiwi (non-Indigenous person who has recently settled in New Zealand), and Pākehā (New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) stakeholders in Te Kōpuka nā te Awa Tupua (advisory body that works to uphold Te Awa Tupua; Te Kōpuka). I argue that these relationships are positive and based on collaboration because tauiwi and Pākehā stakeholders seem to grasp Māori values. However, Te Kōpuka’s mandate is challenging to achieve because of colonial and Western-minded government structures in New Zealand.

Outlining three arguments for Rights of Antarctica

ABSTRACT In this article, we investigate three arguments for Rights of Antarctica (RoA), understood as recognising the whole continent as a rights-holder with legal standing. For this, we draw inspiration from the Antarctica Declaration, a text developed by an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars and activists. We scrutinise three justifications that could potentially be used in support of RoA. First, we investigate whether arguments for Rights of Nature (RoN) elsewhere can support RoA. RoN has been accepted in several domestic legislations. Unfortunately, we discover important disanalogies between RoA and RoN, defeating the purpose of justifying RoA with reference to RoN. Second, we scrutinise potential arguments that focus on giving rights to specific Antarctic ecoregions or places. However, such arguments would only cover parts of the continent, thus going against the holistic approach of RoA, and they would require using a broader understanding of ‘attachments’ as grounds for justifying rights for parts of Antarctica. In contrast, we construct an argument for accepting RoA based on four components: (1) Antarctica’s intrinsic value, (2) wider forms of human attachments, (3) Antarctica’s substantial role as a global systemic resource, and (4) the fact that Antarctica is under recurrent and substantial threats. While none of these are individually sufficient for recognising RoA, they can jointly make RoA appropriate. We conclude that it remains an open question whether international law or, more specifically, the Antarctic Treaty, would be open to such conceptual and normative innovation, adopting a new paradigm in our treatment of the nonhuman natural world. At the same time, we hope to kickstart a discussion of what RoA would require and how it should relate more generally to RoN discourses.

Relational representation: Speaking with and not about Nature

The transnational movement to recognise the rights of Nature continues to fuel experimentation by a growing number of jurisdictions in legal form, content, powers, and governance arrangements. In this paper, we focus on the mechanisms through which Nature is represented in various ways. There is enormous diversity in representational arrangements, but there is no clarity on precisely who should be representing Nature, or how Nature can be represented in human spaces, or even what the intent of this representation is (or should be). We describe a spectrum of representation that ranges from speaking about, to speaking for, to speaking with the natural entity. We develop a model of relational representation that shows the power of speaking with Nature to not only develop relations between the representatives and the natural entity, but also to enable a broader dialogue of knowledges with a wider pool of participants. By examining four case studies (the Mar Menor in Spain, the Río Atrato in Colombia, the Birrarung/Yarra River in Australia and Te Awa Tupua/Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand), we show how these diverse representational models are moving towards the relational end of the spectrum, and identify the challenges and opportunities of relational representation of Nature.

Human Right to Court in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

The right to a fair trial has become a right of a universal nature. The idea of human rights is closely related to universal and equal treatment of all people, which means respecting the personal dignity of man. This dignity, as a condition for the individual to belong to the human species, constitutes the foundation, the basis for human rights, and the purpose, the culmination of the construction of these rights. The right to a fair trial is a subjective right of the individual, understood as an idea that any intervention in civil rights must depend on a ruling issued by an independent and impartial judicial body. On the other hand, the material scope of the right to court covers penal, civil and administrative rights decided upon by different courts according to their statutorily determined extent of jurisdiction. Although human rights are the rights of a particular human being, their protection is also an obligation of the State. It is the State which is obligated to ensure that the core of a specific human right is protected. This protection must be effective, thus not only does it apply to the content of the human right concerned, but it also comprises the procedure necessary to protect it so that the right is not illusory. The unique nature of the right to court makes it essential that the administration of justice in accordance with the principle of the right to a fair trial should be the subject of adjudication by courts and tribunals.

Źródła i rola idei uprawnień naturalnych w „Pamflecie bostońskim”

For many centuries, the idea of natural rights has been one of the most important philosophical and legal concepts. Its importance results not only from the importance of the postulates but also, and perhaps above all, because it played a role in the course of changes taking place in modern times. The Boston Pamphlet is one of the first documents issued on the American continent in which revolutionary theses, in particular regarding relations with Great Britain, were formulated in the language of natural rights. The purpose of the article is to analyze the idea of the inalienable rights of the individual, which was expressed in this document. It was indicated that the revolutionary postulates of the authors of the document found as justification and intellectual foundation in a specific vision of inalienable individual rights (and more precisely in the vision proposed by John Locke). The analysis was preceded by a reference to the so-called English liberties, which allowed to place the Pamphlet and the idea of natural rights in a broader context. Attention was also drawn to the fact that although the concept of the inalienable rights of the individual was visible in earlier writings, it was brought to the fore only on the eve of the revolution. The analysis of the concept expressed in the document required the disclosure of those aspects of Locke’s doctrine that played a key role or were even transferred entirely to the content of the document.