5th June 2023, Buenos Aires/Argentina  -  Wishes 28 / 29 / 30

In the name of Peace and Justice.

I have three wishes today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice - in the hope they may be fulfilled. 

And they are all about the needs of nature.

Now you remember, what we all want is Peace. And you also remember: there is no Peace without Justice. So, in order to have Peace, we have to establish Justice first.

So far, so good.

Now, in the case of Justice, you remember: there are two kinds of Justice. There is Justice for humans, and there is Justice for nature.

While in the case of justice for humans I think we've already gone a very long way, in the case of justice for nature we've hardly even begun. Objectively speaking there is now today in the whole world no real jurisdiction in matters concerning nature's rights.

In my view, what is needed first and foremost, is a global understanding of what nature's rights really are. These rights have to be spelled out, comprehensively, in detail, and in writing. In other words, what is needed is a Universal Declaration of Nature's Rights (UDNR), similar to the one spelling out the rights of human beings, worldwide (cf. UDHR).

So this is my first wish for today: that specialized agencies and organizations take the initiative to invite all governments of the world to sit together and work out such a UDNR.

One of the biggest and better known such organizations is the World Wildlife Fund, WWF. So I'm specifically asking the President of WWW International to take the lead, contact his peers in similar organizations and start a process of deliberations as to how such a UDNR should look like. A final draft of such proposal should be presented to the UN General Assembly for approval in the shortest possible time - not in five or ten or fifty years time, but NOW.

And with this I am coming to my second wish for today.

It won't be enough to endorse and sign a paper of understanding concerning nature's rights. The UDNR has to become LAW! It has to become law in its entirety, both at a national and an international level. And such law will have to be rigorously enforced.

Which brings me to my third wish for today. Even laws are not enough. We need courts as well. In particular we need an International Criminal Court, similar to the existing one set up to prosecute crimes against humanity. We need a new ICC to prosecute crimes against Nature, with the authority and the power to prosecute individuals, governments, companies and organizations acting against the guaranteed rights of Nature.

Such are my three wishes for today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice, in the hope they may be fulfilled.

In the name of Peace and Justice, thank you!

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