Water Rights and Responsibilities: limitations and new expectations

As water protectors we often talk of water rights and water responsibilities. These words go hand-in-hand like peace and justice, but let's decode what the differences are and the impacts each has on social movements and water care.
One of the biggest differences between the two - rights and responsibilities - is where they source their legitimacy. Rights come from States (governments) whereas responsibilities come from relationships (with past/future generations and with a democracy of species we share this living earth with).

Let's look at some examples to compare.

Our first example asserts that nature is "not resources but a lifeforce that we have relationships to". Ownership has no standing for these Indigenous people and laws are not just written codes in books but the living practice of upholding responsibilities -- a living law. Responsibilities are pasted down through the ancestors for thousands of years. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom only started in 1982.

Read the full post on Great Lakes Commons Blog at the link below: