A Personhood To The Rivers For Self-Protection : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

Relevance: GS-2: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.

Key Phrases: Whanganui River, Treaty of Waitangi, Public Trust Doctrine, Precautionary Principle, Polluter pays Principle, Art 21, Art 23 of Constitution.

Why in News?

Recently the world has gained three notable new legal persons the Whanganui River in New Zealand, and the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers in India.
In New Zealand this significant legal reform emerged from the longstanding Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and is a way of formally acknowledging the special relationship local Māori have with the river.
In India, the Uttarakhand High Court ruled that the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers have the same legal rights as a person, in response to the urgent need to reduce pollution in two rivers considered sacred in the Hindu religion.

Judicial Doctrines:

Public Trust Doctrine:
- The public trust doctrine primarily rests on the principle that certain resources like air, sea, water and the forest have such a great importance to the people as a whole and it is unjustified to make these resources subject to private ownership.
- The doctrine enjoins upon the government to protect the resources for the enjoyment of the general public rather than to permit their use for private ownership or commercial purposes.
Precautionary Principle:
- The precautionary principle has been evolved from Stockholm convention.
- The principle implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm when the scientific investigation has found risk.
Polluter pays Principle:
- It is a principle in the international environmental law where the polluter pays for the damage done to natural environment.
- It is also known as the extended polluter responsibility, whosoever is responsible for the damage to the environment should bear the cost associated to it.
- Its purpose is to shift the responsibility from the government to the public. It is a simple extension of the principle of fairness and justice.

About “Living Entity” Status:

Rights are the obligations that society and state have for establishing sustainable relationships.
This means that the rights under Part III of the constitution i.e., Art 21 and Art 23 will be applicable to the rivers now.
With this ruling, Rivers Ganga and Yamuna are no more voiceless water body, but “person” with legal rights.
As “juristic person”, the rivers, have a right to be legally protected from any kind of harm, pollution or destruction.
Right to be enforceable, both the “guardians” and users of the resource must recognize their joint rights, duties, and responsibilities. To possess a right implies that someone else has a commensurate duty to observe this right.
Polluting it, henceforth, could entitle to human rights violation for which it can take legal recourse.
The rivers can be a party to disputes and rights violation, represented by court-appointed individuals who can file and contest cases on their behalf.

Similar Examples:

In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to enshrine the legal rights of nature in its constitution.
Bolivia passed a similar law in 2011.
Meanwhile, New Zealand in 2017 became the first country to grant the Whanganui river legal rights, followed by the Indian state of Uttarakhand, when it declared the Yamuna and Ganges rivers "living entities" (a verdict that was later stayed by the Supreme Court).
El Salvador recognized its forests as living entities and stated that each person must commit to caring for, preserving, and respecting forests.
In 2019, the city of Toledo, Ohio, passed what is known as the Lake Erie Bill of Rights to protect its shores, making it one of several U.S. communities to have passed legislation recognizing the rights of nature.
In July 2019, Bangladesh became the first country to grant all of its rivers the same legal status as humans.

Benefits of Granting Living Entity Status:

Now Harming and polluting rivers will be legally same as to harming a person. It will also help in preserving the endangered aquatic animals in river ecosystem.
Direct accountability to government officials to protect and conserve rivers and their tributaries.
Recognition of spiritual significance as these rivers are living symbosl of our culture and civilization.
It will help the government in cleaning of these rivers, for example the Namami Gange Programme.

Issues:

Problem of implementation: Discharge of industrial waste into the rivers will not stop overnight, the implementation authorities need more powers to implement the rights
No alternatives: In the absence of any other alternative the municipal sewage and industrial waste will continue to flow into the rivers, this will make the implementing agencies to go easy on the offenders.
Legal confusion: In the absence of clear definition of rights of rivers there is a lot of ambiguity and confusion around the judgement.
Legal Burden: The status will encourage many to file cases on behalf of the rivers which will put additional pressure on the already over-burdened judiciary.
Infrastructure hurdles: Construction of dams, power generation units which are crucial for power generation and irrigation will be adversely affected as new projects will be challenged in the court.

Conclusion:

River is a living ecosystem both scientifically and biologically, so giving living status is a step in right direction.
Now it is the Centre and the states and peoples to study the legal and political implications of the Uttarakhand court order and take remedial actions if their interests are adversely affected.
Although legal rights can be created, it takes time and money to set up the legal and organizational frameworks that will ensure these rights are worth more than the paper they’re printed on.
There is still a big question about whether these types of legal rights are relevant or appropriate for the nature at all. But what is clear from the experience of applying this concept to other non-human entities is that these legal rights don’t mean much if they can’t be enforced.

Sources: Live Law

Mains Question:

Q.Recently the rivers around the world have been granted the status of legal person. In this context discuss the meaning of legal person status and its benefits and issues surrounding it? Support your answer with relevant national and international examples?