Summary
On June 4, 2024, a proposed amendment to the Brazilian Federal Constitution (PEC) was submitted to Brazil’s National Congress to include recognition of the Rights of Nature. The new wording to the Federal Constitution would, “confer fundamental rights to beings belonging to Nature and necessary for its preservation” and “to confer dignity to non-human beings”. A public hearing, proposed by the Deputy Célia Xacriabá and the National Articulation for Nature Rights, together with the Joint Parliamentary Front in Defense of Indigenous Rights, guided the Proposal of a Parliamentary Amendment on Nature Rights.
CHAPTER VI THE RIGHTS OF NATURE states, Art. 1 Nature is recognized as a subject of rights and is made up of all living beings, human and non-human, that inhabit it and depend on it for their survival. Art. 2 The beings that make up Nature are recognized with the rights to protect their lives, ecosystems and preservation by promoting the balance of their interrelationships. Art. 3 The ancestral and historical relationship of indigenous peoples and other traditional peoples and communities with the preservation of Nature is recognized, as well as the maintenance of these relationships as a guaranteed right to maintain the ways of life of these populations.