Dr David Boyd UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment on the Rights of Nature

Dr. David R. Boyd is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment (2018-2024) and a professor of law, policy, and sustainability at the University of British Columbia, jointly appointed at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Boyd is also the author of ten books and over 100 reports and articles on environmental law and policy, human rights, and constitutional law. His books include The Rights of Nature (ECW Press, 2017), The Optimistic Environmentalist (ECW Press, 2015), The Right to a Healthy Environment (UBC Press, 2012) and The Environmental Rights Revolution (UBC Press, 2011).FORUM2023 Earth Democracy and the Rights of Nature
Presented online on Thursday 12 October, 2023
With Chief Arvol Looking Horse, His Holiness the Sakya Trichen, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Matthew Fox, and speakers from the UN, the White House, the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, the Religious Naturalism Movement and messages from Indigenous leaders on the Rights of Nature from around the world.
Keynote addresses
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
His Holiness Kyabgon Gongma Trichen Rinpoche (The Sakya Trichen)
Dr. Vandana Shiva, Founder of Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in India and President of Navdanya International
Bill McKibben, Contributing writer to The New Yorker, Founder of Third Act
Perspectives on the Rights of Nature
Dr. David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
Matthew Fox, Author, spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest, activist for gender justice and eco-justice
Prof. Azza Karam, Member United Nation’s Secretary General High Level Advisory Board on Multilateralism: Professor of Religion and Development, Vrije Universitiet, Amsterdam; Secretary General Emerita of Religions for Peace International
Dialogues on the Rights of Nature
Prof. Ursula Goodenough, Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University and author of The Sacred Depths of Nature (Oxford, 2023)
Dr. Robin Kimmerer, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York
Dr. Carol Wayne White, Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Bucknell University
Mari Margil, Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Shrawan Kumar Sharma, Nepal Associate of Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Messages on Earth Democracy from around the world
Eric Fejo, Founding Chair, Durra Larrakia Daraniki, Australia
Jerome Foster II, White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council Member
Safaira Baba Tagivuni, Executive Director, Grace Trifam Ministry, Fiji
Dr. Wanjiru Kamau, Founder, African Immigrant & Refugees Foundation, Kenya
Bonifacio Machacca Florez, Q’ero, Peru
Prayers for our world offered by
Prof Ephraim Isaac, Director of the Institute of Semitic Studies at Princeton University; Chair of the Board, Ethiopian Peace and Development Center
Dr Karan Singh, International Chairman of the Temple of Understanding
Carole Vandal, Wampanoag Tribal Elder, Martha’s Vineyard Commission, Elected Commissioner-Aquinnah
www.templeofunderstanding.org
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