Guajará-Mirim (Brazil) Municipal Law: rights of the Laje River (Komi Memen)

Summary

On April 17, 2023, the city of Guajará-Mirim in Brazil approved the first law in Brazil that recognizes the legal rights of a river belonging to the Amazon region. The law states that “the intrinsic rights of the Laje River (Komi Memen) are recognized as a living entity and subject of rights, and of all other bodies of water and living beings that naturally exist in it or with whom it interrelates, including human beings, as they are interrelated in an interconnected, integrated and interdependent system” (2). The new law provides for the creation of a committee of river guardians, made up of members of the indigenous community, fishermen, the Oro Wari organization, indigenous women artisans and the Federal University of Rondônia (2). The Laje River lies in the heart of the Guajará Mirim State Park, formerly the territory of indigenous peoples.

The law was proposed by Indigenous Councilman Francisco Oro Waram, leader of the Waram Indigenous village, supported by Indigenous Councilman Wen Cacami, and the NGOs ‘Comvida’ (Committee for the Defense of Amazonian Life) and ‘Mapas’. They explain that the legislative text was constructed with the intention of translating into the legal language of the non-indigenous man the cosmological knowledge and understanding of the original and traditional peoples about nature.

This law follows an amendment to the Organic Law of the Municipality approved a month prior, which “determines that the public administration must guarantee the recognition of the intrinsic rights of water bodies, under the aegis of the recognition of the Rights of Nature.” (1)

Involved Organizations