By Philip Hodges
It started a couple years ago when New Zealand passed legislation that granted one of its national parks personhood status. That’s not an exaggeration, and I’m not trying to be funny. They actually protect the 821-square-mile national park Te Urewera not as government-owned land, but as a person, a citizen with legal rights and entitlements. Later this year, another bill along the same lines is expected to pass the New Zealand parliament that will grant personhood status to one of its rivers – the Whanganui. For years, the local indigenous Maori people – of Polynesian descent – argued that they owned the land, but the government wouldn’t give it up. This law acted as a sort of compromise. As professor Jacinta Ruru who specializes in indigenous rights at New Zealand’s University of Otago explained:......To Read More....
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