Chapter 04: The Natural Contract

Non-human Rights

Non-human Rights
Paulo Tavares

In the new Constitution of Ecuador (2008), Nature, as similar to human beings, is defined as a subject of law. This legal text challenges the ways by which modern-western societies conceive the material world, projecting a radical Universalist ethos based on the commonality between humans and non-humans.

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Chapter 04: The Natural Contract

Excerpts from interview with (non)human rights lawyer Mario Melo. 

Chapter 04: The Natural Contract
Artist/Author: Paulo Tavares

Archive images of the testimony of Don Sabino Gualinga at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the landmark case Kichwa People of Sarayaku v. State of Ecuador. Melo situates the Rights of Nature within legal theory, arguing that, fundamentally, it is a tool for political transformation. Non-human rights as dissident legal-political epistemology.
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