ABSTRACT
The fast and systemic changes leading to ecological devastation on a global scale due to human activity have been called ‘the Great Acceleration’. An underlying factor in this process is a worldview dominated by anthropocentrism, in which non-human nature is viewed as property. A contrasting view in which non-human nature is understood as a rights-bearing subject is currently growing worldwide, challenging the anthropocentric bias in our moral thinking and our legal systems. This chapter investigates a multicentric understanding of ethics as a defence of the position that nature has rights. Examples of how rights of nature are introduced in legal and political frameworks are given from the United Nations Harmony with Nature initiative; from Ecuador, where rights of nature is part of the Constitution; and from New Zealand, where the river Whanganui has been given rights as a legal subject. The language of decisions and judgements in these cases mirrors and supports a non-anthropocentric ethic and a respectful relationship to nature, signifying a holistic understanding of the human-nature relationship prominent in many indigenous cultures.
