Summary
In December 2024, Professor Louise Welsh and Jude Barber submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament that would grant the River Clyde, and potentially other Scottish rivers, the legal right to personhood. According to the petition, legal personhood would have been granted by (1) adopting the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Rivers; (2) adopting a Nature Director to act as a guardian of the River Clyde in order to uphold its river rights; and (3) considering whether an alternative mechanism should be established to act for the rights of the river.
The petition received over 700 signatures and was considered in March 2025 by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. The Committee agreed to close the petition in October 2025.
As part of its first requirement, the petition advocates for the national adoption of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Rivers (UDRR). The UDRR was created by the Earth Law Center and recognizes rivers as living entities with fundamental rights, including the right to flow unobstructed, to be free from pollution, have native biodiversity, and to regenerate and be restored.
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/scotland-citizens-petition-rights-of-river-clyde/.
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