Articles
approved by Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly,
April
10th, 2008
Title II
Fundamental Rights
Chapter 1
Entitlement,
Application and Interpretation Principles of the Fundamental Rights
Art. Rights Entitlement[N1] .-
Persons and people have the fundamental rights guaranteed in this Constitution
and in the international human rights instruments.
Nature is subject to those rights given by this Constitution and Law.
Articles approved
by Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly,
July 7th,
2008
Chapter: Rights for Nature
Art. 1[N2] . Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and
exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital
cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.
Every
person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions
of rights for nature before the public organisms.* The application and
interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established
in the Constitution.
Art. 2[N3] . Nature has
the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent
of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify
the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.
In the
cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by
the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish
the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate
measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.
Art. 3.[N4] The State will motivate natural and juridical persons
as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all
the elements that form an ecosystem.
Art. 4[N5] . The State will apply precaution and restriction
measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the
destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.
The introduction of organisms and organic and
inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic
patrimony is prohibited.
Art. 5[N6] . The persons, people, communities and nationalities
will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth
that will allow wellbeing.
The
environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision,
use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.
[N1]91 votes in favor
[N2]93 votes in favor, 18 against, 0 in
blank and 3 abstentions
[N3]91 votes in favor, 13 against, 1 in
blank and 9 abstentions
[N4]96 votes in favor, 7 against, 0 in
blank and 11 abstentions
[N5]90 votes in favor, 15 against, 2 in blank and 6 abstentions
[N6]89 votes in favor, 19 against, 1 in blank and 4 abstentions
* “public organisms” in Article 1 means the courts and government
agencies, i.e., the people of Ecuador would be able to privately enforce nature
rights.