A river in the UK is set to be granted “rights” by a district council after the passing of a protective motion. SPUC has highlighted the “glaring contradiction” that “a river has rights and protections, yet unborn babies have none”.
Lewes District Council has approved a motion granting the River Ouse legal protections, set to be enshrined in a charter of rights that could come into effect within two years.
The Ouse runs through the historic town of Lewes, in East Sussex, flowing down to the port of Newhaven.
Councillor Matthew Bird, a Green Party cabinet member for Sustainability in Lewes, said he was “delighted that Lewes is the first council in England, I believe, to pass a motion of this kind that is about valuing the river in its own right and rethinks our relationship with it…
“This motion is the first step towards a Rights of River Ouse Charter through which the health and wellbeing of the river is represented and voiced by local communities throughout the Ouse Valley catchment.”
The above-mentioned Charter appears to be influenced by the Universal Declaration of River Rights, which states that “all rivers are living entities”. Rivers accordingly have such rights as the right to flow; the right perform essential functions within its ecosystem; the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers.
The Declaration also states that “natural beings” possess, “at minimum, the fundamental rights to exist, thrive, and evolve”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “We all support the protection of rivers and nature more broadly – nurturing life in all forms and doing no harm.
“Yet there is a glaring contradiction here: that a river has rights and protections, yet unborn babies have none. Will Lewes District Council also accept, then, that unborn babies also have a right ‘to exist, thrive, and evolve’? Or do fundamentals only apply to water, reeds and mud, but not a child?
“There is something very wrong with a society that grants rights to rivers while denying unborn babies the right to life. It would be comic if it were not so tragic.”
