Stand for the Rights of Waters and the Rights of Nature

"Water doesn't need us to save her. It needs us to remember we ARE her."
— Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca Nation Matriarch and Movement Rights Co-Founder

We are water. It makes up 80% of our bodies. Water connects us to one another and to every living being on this planet. Fresh water is in peril everywhere, from drought, AI data centers, fossil fuels, pollution, water bottling and more. 

The urgency of the climate crisis demands that we fundamentally rethink our relationship with the Earth and transform the systems that govern how we live. Just as rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans are connected across the Earth, our struggles for clean water, air and soil are deeply interconnected. Lasting solutions will only emerge when human laws once again reflect the natural laws that have sustained life since time immemorial.

The Rights of Nature is the fastest-growing environmental justice movement in history. With laws in over 50 countries, it provides new protections by recognizing that rivers, forests, oceans, and ecosystems have inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve. And it's Indigenous-led.

Movement Rights has been a leader of this movement for more than a decade.  As an all women- and Indigenous-led organization, we know climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and the Rights of Nature are key to addressing the climate crisis. We know that in order to mend this planet and protect future generations, we must center the knowledge of Indigenous people whose practices protect 80% of Earth's remaining biodiversity. We have already seen what is possible when we put the Rights of Nature first.  

In 2017, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, with the support of Movement Rights, became the first Tribal Nation in the United States to enact a Rights of Nature law, recognizing that ecosystems possess inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve. Five years later, in 2022, the Ponca Nation strengthened that commitment by passing a Rights of Rivers law protecting the sacred waters of the Salt Fork and Arkansas Rivers, creating powerful new tools to defend these waters from the ongoing threats of fracking and fossil fuel development.

These historic victories were led by Ponca elder, activist, and Movement Rights co-founder Casey Camp-Horinek. Casey's vision and moral clarity have guided everything we do from day one, and we continue to build for change across the US and around the world. 

Movement Rights is in the streets, in the news and in the courts, providing legal support, research and reports, convening strategic gatherings, speaking at the UN, community meetings, and more. We work with a broad spectrum of state, national and global climate allies, communities and sovereign Indigenous nations. We have helped thousands of people connect the dots between the critical time we find ourselves in and the solutions that Indigenous people have always known: human activity must take place within the natural system of laws that govern life on Earth. 

We ARE nature, and we are all connected by the waters we all share. Will you raise your hand today and join us as we work to embrace and expand the Rights of Nature?