France Citizen Declaration: rights of the Tet River

Summary

In 2021, the NGO En Commun 66 in France wrote a Declaration of the Rights of the Tet River. The declaration emphasized the importance of the river in fulfilling essential ecological functions and recognized the dependence of human beings on rivers. Warning of the effects of climate change and pollution, the declaration makes a point of the need to recognize nature as a common good and a subject of law. It declares “the Tet river is a living and indivisible entity from its source to its mouth, delimited by its watershed, and has legal personality.” Its rights include the right to exist to live and to flow; to perform its essential ecological functions; not to be polluted; to supply and be supplied by aquifers in a sustainable manner; to maintain its biodiversity; to natural regeneration and restoration; and to sue. Although specific guardians have not yet been appointed, the declaration said they will include representatives of the signatories and communities.

The Têt is the leading river in Northern Catalonia and one of the main water resources of the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is currently threatened by various land development and river management projects. The river’s ecological condition is deteriorating, and erosion of its riverbed is worsening year after year, threatening the river’s existence and those living along its banks.