Summary
On June 4 2025, the Paris City Council called on France’s Parliament to pass a law giving the River Seine rights. The Council’s resolution was based on the conclusions of a Citizens’ Convention on the Future of the Seine, held in April – May 2025. The citizens’ convention was organized by the Paris City Council and comprised of fifty citizens chosen at random, who questioned experts and took part in weeks of debate, to reach a collective opinion.
The citizens’ convention concluded that the Seine should have fundamental rights, including “the right to exist, to flow and to regenerate.” Participants clearly expressed their support for granting the Seine legal personhood and rights, and recognizing the Seine as a living river essential to humanity and the environment itself.
Citizens expressed their desire to “go beyond the Seine” and to “change their perspective on the rights of nature.” They call for “a more ecocentric vision…to safeguard the health of the Seine in all our uses and through a different form of governance.” This stance emphasizes the need to transform our relationship with nature and to “place the environment above private interests and at the heart of the common good.”
In the Paris City Council, recognition of the rights of nature was championed as a necessary legal and political revolution, and the City reiterated its commitment to a law recognizing the legal personhood and fundamental rights of the Seine and other French rivers.
Granting the Seine River legal personhood would allow for protection tailored to the threats it faces and responds to the democratic desire to protect it, but it also means challenging current governance models by integrating truly ecocentric dynamics and policies. To integrate the rights of Nature into the national democratic debate, citizens are putting forward proposals, such as a national citizens’ convention on the rights of nature, and a referendum on enshrining nature’s rights in France’s constitution.
Involved Organizations
Related Initiatives
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/france-citizen-declaration-rights-of-the-seine-river/.
When using our data, please follow the FAIR and CARE Principles for data governance outlined in our Ethics Statement. We are doing our best to be correct in the information we provide, but if you notice any omission or inaccuracy, please report this to us immediately at info@ecojurisprudence.org so we can correct it.
Eco Jurisprudence Tracker is licensed under CC BY 4.0
