Text
7 June 2017, UN Ocean Conference, New York - The Cook Islands has growing support in its call to explore the rights of the ocean as a legal person, during the UN Ocean Conference underway in New York this week.
First done by Ecuador in 2008, giving nature – its mountains, rivers, forests, air, and islands legally enforceable rights to "exist, flourish and evolve"; New Zealand also gave the Whanganui River legal rights this year after 140 years of negotiation; courts in India also followed suit granting the Ganges and Yamuna rivers the same rights as human beings.
Cook Islands