Legislative Assembly of the Multi-National State of Bolivia

DECREE
Law of Rights of Mother Earth
Chapter 1 – Objective and Principles
Article 1. (Objective). The present Law has as its objective the recognition of the rights of
Mother Earth, as well as the obligations and duties of the Multi-national State and of its
Society, to guarantee respect of these rights.
Article 2. (First Principles). The First Principles which govern the current law, and with
which compliance is an obligation, are:
1. Harmony. Human activities, in the framework of plurality and diversity, should achieve
dynamic balance with the cycles and processes inherent to Mother Earth.
2. Collective Good. Societal interests, in the framework of the rights of Mother Earth, prevail
in all human activity and over any other acquired rights.
3. Guarantee of Regeneration of Mother Earth. The State, at its varying levels, and society, in
harmony with the common interest, should guarantee the conditions necessary for the diverse
living systems of Mother Earth to absorb damages, adapt to disturbances, and regenerate
itself without significant alteration to its structure and functionality, realizing that living
systems have limits in their abilities to regenerate themselves, and that humanity has limits in
its ability to reverse its effects.
4. Respect and Defense of the Rights of Mother Earth. The State and any other individual or
collective persons shall respect, protect and guarantee the rights of Mother Earth for the well-
being of existing and future generations.
5. No Commercialization. That life systems cannot be commercialized, nor the processes that
sustain them, nor form part of the private inheritance of anyone.
6. Multi-cultural. The exercise of the rights of Mother Earth requires the understanding,
recovery, respect, protection and dialogue of the diversity of sensitivities, values, knowledge,
understandings, practices, abilities, transcendences, sciences, technologies and standards, of
all the world cultures that seek harmonious coexistence with the natural world.
Chapter II – Mother Earth, Definition and Characterization
Article 3. (Mother Earth) Mother Earth is the living dynamic system comprised of the inter-
related, interdependent and complementary indivisible community of all life systems and
living beings that share a common destiny.
Mother Earth is considered to be sacred, as per the cosmologies of the nations of rural
indigenous peoples.
Article 4. (Life Systems) They are complex and dynamic communities of plants, animals,
micro-organisms and other beings in their entirety, in which human communities and the rest
of nature interact as a functional unit, under the influence of climatic, physiographic and
geologic factors, as well as the productive practices and cultural diversity of Bolivians of
both genders, and the cosmologies of the nations of rural indigenous peoples, the intercultural
communities and the Afro-Bolivians.
Article 5. (Legal Character of Mother Earth) In order to be protected and for the teaching of
her rights, Mother Earth adopts the characteristics of collective rights of public
interest. Mother Earth and all its components, including human communities, are owners of
the rights inherently understood in this Law. The application of Mother Earth’s rights shall
take into account the specificities and particularities of its diverse components. Those rights
established in this Law do not limit the existence of other rights of Mother Earth.
Article 6. (Exercise of the Rights of Mother Earth) All Bolivians of either gender, as part of
the community of beings which comprise Mother Earth, exercise the rights established in this
Law, in a manner that is compatible with individual and collective rights.
The exercise of individual rights is limited by the exercise of collective rights of the living
systems of Mother Earth, any conflict among these shall be resolved in a manner that does
not irreversibly affect the functionality of those living systems.
Chapter III – Rights of Mother Earth
Article 7. (Rights of Mother Earth)
I. Mother Earth has the following rights:
1. To Life: It is the right to the maintenance of the integrity of living systems and natural
processes which sustain them, as well as the capacities and conditions for their renewal.
2. To the diversity of life: It is the right to the preservation of the differentiation and variety
of the beings that comprise Mother Earth, without being genetically altered, nor artificially
modified in their structure, in such a manner that threatens their existence, functioning and
future potential.
3. To Water: It is the right of the functionality of the water cycles, of its existence and
quantity, and the quality necessary to sustain living systems, and their protection with regards
to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components.
4. To Clean Air: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of air
tosustain living systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the
life of Mother Earth and all its components.
5. To Balance: It is the right to maintenance or restoration of the inter-relation,
interdependence, ability to complement and functionality of the components of Mother Earth,
in a balanced manner for the continuation of its cycles and the renewal of its vital processes.
6. To Restoration: It is the right to the effective and opportune restoration of its living
systems affected by direct or indirect human activities.
7. To live Free of Contamination: It is the right for preservation of Mother Earth and any of
its components with regards to toxic and radioactive wastes generated by human activities.
Chapter IV – Obligations of the State and Social Duties
Article 8. (Obligations of the Multi-national State) The Multi-national State, at all its levels
and all its territories, and across all its institutions and authorities, has the following
obligations:
1. Develop public policies and systematic preventive actions, early alert, protection and
prevention, to avoid human activities that lead to extinction of populations, the alteration of
cycles and processes that guarantee life, or the destruction of living systems, including the
cultural systems that are part of Mother Earth.
2. Develop balanced forms of production and patterns of consumption for the well-being of
the Bolivian peoples, safeguarding the regenerative capacities and integrity of the processes
and vital balances of Mother Earth.
3. Develop policies to defend Mother Earth, in the environment of multi-national and
international over-exploitation of components, against the commercialization of living
systems or the processes that sustain them, and of the structural causes of Global Climate
Change and its effects.
4. Develop policies to ensure the sustainability of power generation in the long run by means
of saving, increases in efficiency and the gradual incorporation of clean and renewable
alternative sources of power.
5. Demand in the international arena the understanding of the environmental debt by means
of financing and technology transfer of clean technologies that are clean, effective and
compatible with the rights of Mother Earth, as well as other mechanisms.
6. Promote peace and the elimination of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass
destruction.
7. Promote the understanding and defense of the rights of Mother Earth in arena of
multilateral, regional and bilateral international relationships.
Article 9. (Duties of the Persons) It is the duty of public or private natural and juridical
persons:
1. To defend and respect the rights of Mother Earth.
2. To promote harmony on Mother Earth and in all its relationships with the rest of the human
communities and natural living systems.
3. To participate in an active form, personally or collectively, in the generation of proposals
aimed at the respect for and defense of the rights of Mother Earth.
4. To take up production and consumption practices in harmony with the rights of Mother
Earth.
5. To ensure sustainable use and exploitation of Mother Earth’s components.
6. To denounce all acts against the rights of Mother Earth, its living systems and/or its
components.
7. To attend meetings of competent authorities or civil society oriented at conservation and/or
protection of the rights of Mother Earth.
Article 10. (Ombudsman of Mother Earth). The position of Ombudsman of Mother Earth is
created, whose mission is to watch over the applicability to, promotion and diffusion of, and
compliance with the rights of Mother Earth established in this Law. A special law will
establish its structure, function and attributes.
Remitted to the Executive Agency, for constitutional ends.
Given in the Sessions Chamber of the Multi-National Legislative Assembly, on the seventh
day of the month of December, 2010.