Rua Augusto Corrêa, 1 Guamá, CEP: 66075-110 Belém-PA – Universitário, Belém – PA.
Final session: A New Pledge For Mother Nature
Watch the Tribunal
Access to the Tribunal videos
Please review the Tribunal in our Youtube Channel
Por favor aquí pueden revisar los videos del Tribunal en nuestro canal de Youtube
Confira os vídeos dos julgamentos em nosso canal do YouTube.
Location
Registration
The concluding session in Belém will consolidate the analyses, findings, and judgments of this 6th international hearing. The program will be structured around six key pillars:
- Amplifying the voices of Mother Earth’s defenders.
Keynote speeches from frontline communities resisting the extraction frontiers in the Amazon and the world.
- Presentations and reflections from international efforts for Nature
such as the “Pacto Ecosocial e Intercultural del Sur” and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Global Tapestry of Alternatives.
- Protect Mother Earth’s defenders.
Reflections on the situation of environmental defenders and presentation of the International Rights of Nature Tribunal policy on the Rights of the defenders of Mother Earth.
- Just transition out of fossil fuels and a critical approach to mining, while holding corporations and governments accountable.
A presentation of the judgments of New York and Toronto “The End of the Fossil Fuel Era” and “Impacts of Mining & the Post-Extractivism Era”
- Rights of Nature as a legal and ethical solution.
A celebration of Rights of Nature victories and how RoN serves as a systemic solution to the environmental and climate crisis.
- Presentation of the policy document “A New Pledge For Mother Nature ”
A comprehensive proposal urging decisive action from the international community and the United Nations to ensure a livable future for all.
This final session in Belém will be organized in the framework of the People’s Summit and will be a landmark moment for global environmental governance, reinforcing the Tribunal’s commitment to ecological justice and the Rights of Nature as a foundational legal framework for our shared future
A Path to COP30: From New York and Toronto to Belém
This final session builds on the analysis from the two previous sessions of the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal held in New York and Toronto. These sessions focused respectively on two major harmful industries driving the climate and environmental crisis: fossil fuels and mining. Explore here the key moments and final documents from both sessions.
Through powerful testimonies from frontline communities, legal experts, and Earth defenders, the Tribunal will expose systemic harms and call for transformative legal frameworks that recognize the Rights of Nature. Special focus will be given to the protection of Mother Earth’s defenders and the path toward a truly just transition.
The “The End of the Fossil Fuel Era” hearing, held on 22 September 2024 at Climate Week in New York analyzed the global dependence on fossil fuels and aligned its recommendations with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Cases heard in New York included:
- False solutions to the climate crisis
- Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Canada
- Gas Pipeline, Mozambique
- East African Crude Oil Pipeline, South Africa
- Hadero Arand, India
- Talara Refinery & New Amazon Oil Expansion (Petroperu 64), Peru
- Mountain Valley Pipeline, USA
- Oil Spill in Verde Passage & Manila Bay, Philippines
- Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone, South Africa
- Louisiana’s Sacrifice Zone, USA
- Vaca Muerta Sacrifice Zone, Argentina
- Land Defenders & Solutions: Yasuni ITT Case, Keystone XL Pipeline, Just Transition
Watch the recording
Slides and presentations
“The Impacts of Mining and the Post-Extractivism Era” hearing was held in Toronto on 28 February 2025, ahead of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference. This session exposed environmental destruction and human rights abuses caused by Canadian mining projects under the guise of a “green transition.”
Cases heard in Toronto included:
- Canada’s Entrenchment in Ecuador:
- Palo Quemado / Las Pampas
- Kimsakocha
- Nabón
- Naves
- Warintza
- Fierro Urco
- Espindola
- Amazon Belo Sun Gold Mine, Brazil
- Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement
- Cyanide Spill in San Juan, Argentina
- Lithium Mining in Jujuy, Argentina
- Uranium Mining, Canada
- Dundee Precious Minerals in Homolje, Serbia
- Aclara Resources Heavy Rare Earths, Chile
Access the Tribunal materials
More information
Tribunal Structure
Judges
Ashish Kothari
Judge
Cormac Cullinan
Judge
Casey Camp Horinek
Judge
Tzeporah Berman
Judge
Enrique Viale
Judge
Felicio Pontes
Judge
Nnimmo Bassey
Judge
Ana Alfinito
Judge
Princesa Esmeralda de Belgique
Judge
Heather Milton Lightening
Judge
Patricia Gualinga
Judge
Tom Goldtooth
Judge
Osprey Orielle Lake
Judge
Francesco Martone
Judge
Shannon Biggs
Judge
Pooven Moodley
Judge
Natalia Greene
Secretariat
Speakers
Andreza do Socorro Pantoja de Oliveira
Speakers
Bio
Bachelor of Law from the University of Amazonia (2002), Master’s (2010) and Doctorate (2016) in Law from the Federal University of Pará. Postdoctoral studies at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra (2020). Lawyer. Judicial Mediator. Professor of undergraduate and graduate law at the Federal University of Pará, assigned to the Institute of Legal Sciences. Coordinated the Graduate Program in Law and Development in the Amazon (PPGDDA, 2021-2024). Member of the Empirical Research Network in Law (REED), the National Association of Human Rights – Research and Graduate Studies (ANDHEP), the National Council for Research and Graduate Studies in Law (CONPEDI), and the CINETS Crimmigration Control Network. Leader of the Research Group “Right to Development, Human Rights, and Public Policy in the Amazon.” She was Director-General of the OAB-PA Law School (2022-2024), consulting member of the National Commission for Legal Education of the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association, and member of the OAB-PA Legal Education Commission (2022-2024). Coordinator of Observar Amazônia. She has experience in the field of law, working mainly on the following topics: international law, constitutional law, human rights, children’s and adolescents’ rights, the right to development, and public policy.
Chief Ninawá
Speaker
Bio
Chief Ninawa Huni Kui Ninawa is a medical doctor who merges traditional wisdom with modern science. He is a hereditary Chief of the Huni Kui Indigenous people of the Amazon and has served as President of the Huni Kuin People’s Federation of Acre since 2016. He represents 118 communities along the rivers Envira, Tarauacá and Jordão in the Amazon with a population of approximately 16.500 people. Chief Ninawa advocates for indigenous rights and Amazon conservation and draws attention to false solutions to climate destabilization and is a strong advocate for centering Indigenous rights, livelihoods and reparations in the climate agenda.
Ninawa is also General Coordinator of the Social Inclusion Project, “Mãtsisipatã nukun yunu xarabú banakin,” safeguarding his cultural heritage and promoting organic agriculture. Despite facing challenges like illegal logging and incursions on his territories, Ninawa remains a Guardian of Huni Kui wisdom, inspiring environmentalists and indigenous activists for a better future. He is also the founder of the University of the Forest.
Josefina Tunki
Speaker
Bio
ICCAs Regional representative for the Amazon
Josefina belongs to the Shuar Nation, an Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She was the first woman to be president of the Governing Council of the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA), a role she held from 2019 to 2023. In 1987, she obtained a high school diploma as an Industrial Technician in Crafts at the Colegio Salesiano Sevilla Don Bosco in Morona Santiago, Ecuador. She works with and supports numerous organizations and plays leadership roles at local, national, and international levels. In 2022, the Center for Transmodern Research and Study (CIET) awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work. She has also received various international awards, including the Paul K. Feyerabend Award and the Alnoba Lewis Family Foundation’s International Indigenous Leadership Award. She is also the Vice President of the Council of TICCA Latinoamérica (ICCA—Territories of Life Latin America Network.)
Breno Bringel
Speaker
Bio
Breno Bringel is a Brazilian activist, editor, and sociologist. He is a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and the Complutense University of Madrid. He coordinates the Observatory of Geopolitics and Ecosocial Transitions in Madrid and the Center for Social Theory and Latin America in Rio de Janeiro. He is the editor of Global Dialogue magazine, published in 15 languages. He has coordinated dozens of action research projects built with movements, collectives, and communities in Our America. He is a member of the Southern Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact. His most recent books are Green Colonialism: Geopolitics and Ecosocial Transitions (São Paulo: Elefante, 2025) and Atlas of Climate Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean (Rio de Janeiro/Buenos Aires: Clacso, 2025).
Andres Gomez
Speaker
Bio
Andrés Gómez is an energy and climate justice activist working at the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty initiative. He is an environmentalist, petroleum engineer and researcher in fossil fuels, climate, post-petroleum societies and environmental transitions. He has participated in discussions, processes and national and international publications on the exploitation of unconventional oil fields, fracking, and post-oil transitions. He is also a member of the Fracking Free Colombian Alliance.
Leonela Moncayo
Speakers
Bio
Leonela Moncayo is a climate activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is the daughter of two recognized human rights defenders, Donald Moncayo and Silvia Lorena Ordoñez Zambrano from the strategic litigation organization “Unión de Afectados por Texaco” (UDAPT). Leonela is part of the group of Amazonian girls that, together with UDAPT, achieved a historic ruling against the operation of routine gas flaring in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana in Ecuador. Routine gas flaring is one of the processes of oil extraction that contributes the most to climate crisis due to the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) more powerful than CO2. Methane is thought to be responsible for one-third of the net global warming since the industrial revolution. Routine gas flaring also has been linked with negative health impacts on fenceline communities, since it emits a variety of harmful gases and components.
Mary Lawlor
Speaker
Bio
Ms. Mary Lawlor took up the mandate of Special Rapport on the situation of human rights defender on 1 May 2020, following the Human Rights Council decision 43/115.
Ms. Lawlor is currently an Adjunct Professor of Business and Human Rights in the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), School of Business, Trinity College Dublin. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Business.
She has worked extensively with and on the situation of human rights defenders.In 2001 she founded Front Line Defenders – the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders to concentrate on human rights defenders at risk. As Executive Director from 2001-2016, Ms. Lawlor represented Front Line Defenders and had a key role in its development.
Ms. Lawlor was previously the Director of the Irish Section of Amnesty International from 1988 to 2000, became a Board member in 1975 and was elected Chair from 1983 to 1987.
She has a BA in Philosophy and postgraduate degrees in Montessori Teaching and Personnel Management.
Ms. Lawlor is on the Advisory Board of the Centre for Ethics in Public Life, School of Philosophy, University College Dublin.
Albert Chan D’zul
Speaker
Bio
From the U Yich Lu’um organisation in Yucatán, Mexico, Albert is the coordinator of the Mesoamerica sub-region of the ICCA Consortium.
Based in Mexico. Albert is a Maya from the municipality of Sanahcat in the Mexican Yucatán, and is actively engaged with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research and Alternative Development, U Yich Lu’um, AC. The Centre is home to a group of dedicated indigenous young people who combine science and traditional knowledge to revalue and rescue the rich cultural and agricultural biodiversity of their Mayan ancestors. Albert is a biologist with a Master’s in Management and Conservation of Tropical Forest and Biodiversity, from CATIE (Costa Rica). He has worked as an advisor for the Consejo Regional Indígena y Popular de X’pujil (CRPIX), a social organization that works in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. While there, he led training activities for indigenous communities and worked on the design, management and implementation of projects dealing with community management, ecological restoration, and ecotourism.
José Heder Benatti
Speakers
Bio
Professor of Law at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). Bachelor of Law from the Center for Legal Sciences at UFPA (1986), Master’s Degree in Law and Legal and Social Institutions of the Amazon from UFPA (1996), and Doctorate in Science and Socio-Environmental Development from the Center for Advanced Amazonian Studies at UFPA (2003). Permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Law and the Graduate Program in Law and Development in the Amazon, both at UFPA. Ad hoc consultant for CNPq and CAPES. Currently holds a CNPq productivity scholarship. Member of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon (SPA), linked to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), since August 2023. He was deputy director of the Institute of Legal Sciences (2012-2016) and director general of the Institute of Legal Sciences (2016-2020), coordinator of the Graduate Program in Law and Development in the Amazon (2020-2021). He was president of the Pará Land Institute (Iterpa) from 2007 to 2010, a member of the IUCN Environmental Law Commission (2006-2016), and a member of the Law for a Green Planet Institute. Among other activities, he was a visiting professor at the University of Florida (USA) in 2005 and Paris 13 University (France) in 2014; president of the Pará Society for the Defense of Human Rights (1992-93); founder, member, and advisor to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (1995-2018). He has experience in the field of law, with an emphasis on property and environmental law, working mainly on the following topics: the Amazon, land use planning, traditional populations, conservation units, land regularization, agroecological ownership, and the rights of nature. (Text provided by the author)
Ioram
Speaker
Bio
Film director. He has 30 years of experience in film directing and photography. Golpe de Vista Filmes is a production company dedicated to producing documentary series and feature films. It is currently producing the series “The Challenges of Sustainability,” which will be broadcast on TV Cultura nationwide and launched at COP30 in Belém.
This project was approved under Ancine’s Audiovisual Law and obtained sponsorship from Unilever, CTG Energia, Embraer, Loga, Saint Gobain, Valgroup, and Ecorodovias.
Iremar Ferreira
Speaker
Bio
Iremar Ferreira, popular educator and resident of Nazaré, on the banks of the Madeira River in Rondônia. Master in Regional Development and Environment, coordinates the Madeira Vivo Institute and articulates the Committee for the Defense of Amazonian Life in the Madeira River basin – COMVIDA, is part of the Brazilian Articulation for the Rights of Nature, the Infrastructure and Socio-Environmental Justice Working Group, the Climate Change and Socio-Environmental Justice Forum, and the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum.
Nathaly Yepéz
Speakers
Bio
Nathaly (she/her) is a lawyer based in Quito, Ecuador. She is a lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE). Throughout her professional career, she has worked as a defender of human and collective rights in various civil society organizations at the national level, particularly with vulnerable populations such as the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. She defended the referendum to protect the Yasuní and the forests of the Choco Andino in the “Quito without Mining” campaign. She was an advisor to the Constitutional Court. In addition, she has extensive experience working with LGBTQI organizations for the recognition of equal marriage in Ecuador. She is currently a legal advisor of Amazon Watch.
Shrishtee Bajpai
Speaker
Bio
Shrishtee has conducted research on radical alternatives to dominant systems with specific focus on exploring indigenous, traditional, and customary ways of living, decision-making and their underlying worldviews. She helps in coordinating the Vikalp Sangam process (Alternatives Confluence) and is a core team member of Global Tapestry of Alternatives. She has been researching and networking on the rights of nature movement with specific focus on South Asia. She has helped found Rights of Rivers South Asia Alliance. She is executive committee member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Shrishtee is a fellow (2021-2022) at Post-growth Institute, US.
Shrishtee has a masters in Development Studies. Apart from this, she is interested in birds, walks to unknown places, discovering music and almonds. https://kalpavriksh.org/ourteam/shrishtee-bajpai/
Erica Canoé Oro Mon
Speakers
Bio
Indigenous member of the Kanoé and Oro Mon peoples from the city of Guajará-mirim, Rondônia. Co-coordinator of the Committee for the Defense of Amazonian Life in the Madeira River Basin (COMVIDA) and educational communicator.
Manai Prado
Speakers
Bio
Ecologist and defender of Yasuní and the Rights of Nature for 13 years, historian, currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sociology with research on Waorani jungle-city mobility (FLACSO Ecuador), spokesperson for Ecos del Yasuní and secretary of the association of community experts on Rights of Nature and natural/cultural heritage PAKARI.
Juan Bay
Speaker
Bio
Leader and president of the Waorani nationality of Ecuador
Partner Organizations
Organized By
The Tribunal is an ethical civil society platform that acts as a subsidiary to States to review cases and judge them through the lens of the Rights of Nature. It is an ideal space for people from all over the world to speak out on behalf of Nature, to demonstrate the processes that are destroying the Earth, a destruction that is often promoted by governments and corporations, and to make recommendations on the protection and restoration of the Earth. The Tribunal has judges selected for their impeccable ethical and moral track record that makes their verdicts heard and respected by civil society. The Tribunal also focuses on enabling indigenous peoples to share their unique land, water and cultural concerns and solutions with the global community.
Tribunal Secretariat
The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) is a global network of organizations and individuals committed to the universal adoption and implementation of legal systems that recognize, respect and enforce the Rights of Nature. Its members are a diverse network of scientists, lawyers, economists, indigenous leaders, authors, spiritual leaders, business leaders, politicians, actors, homemakers, students, activists: people from all walks of life in over 100 countries on 6 continents: North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia who seek to transform our human relationship with our planet.