Colombia National Law: rights of the Sumapaz River

Summary

On March 5, 2024, a bill to recognize Colombia’s Sumapaz River as an entity with rights was filed in the House of Representatives. The purpose of the law is “to recognize the Sumapaz River, its basin, and its tributaries as a subject of rights, in order to guarantee its protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration by the State, the ethnic communities, and the farmers living in the area of influence.” The law was archived and did not pass to the Senate.

The law would provide for three legal delegates from the area’s ethnic and rural communities, who would be responsible for safeguarding and guaranteeing the river’s rights recognized by law. A protection plan would also be developed with short, medium, and long-term measures for the decontamination, conservation, and protection of waters and riparian territories, the recovery of ecosystems, the reforestation of affected areas, as well as the prevention of further damage in the region.

The idea of the bill was to imitate Colombia’s 2016 Constitutional Court ruling, which recognized the rights of the Atrato River. The Sumapaz River is a tributary of the Magdalena River, which a local court in Huila, Colombia recognized as a subject of rights in 2019. The Sumapaz river originates in the Sumapaz páramo, the largest páramo in the world, and its watershed extends through Cundinamarca, Tolima, and the San Juan district in rural Bogotá.

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