We help communities and groups like yours.
We are not a typical environmental organization. We assist communities to develop first-in-the-nation, groundbreaking laws to protect rights – including worker, environmental, and democratic rights, and rights of nature. CELDF provides free and low cost legal services, grassroots organizing, and education, to communities, states, and countries facing injustice. We help them to assert their rights to fight the harms they face. Learn more about how we work, or call us now at: 717-498-0054.
News from the Grassroots
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Blog: The Gun Establishment's Weapon of Choice
Courageous local officials in ten Florida cities are fighting punishments enacted by the state legislature under an unjust gun law. But it's the state's claimed power of preemption that must be challenged.
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Oxford Human Rights Hub: RightsUp #RightNow - When Human Rights Are Not Enough: Defending the Rights of Nature
Human rights to a healthy environment are gaining recognition - and today, the rights of nature are growing as well. Here, CELDF's Mari Margil speaks to how recognizing ecosystem rights is central to tackling environmental degradation.
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Press Release: Colombia Supreme Court Rules that Amazon Region is "Subject of Rights"
In the growing recognition of ecosystem rights around the world, today the Colombia Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the Amazon region in Colombia possesses rights.
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The Progressive: Poll: Voters Want Local Control, Not State Takeovers
State preemption is growing, community members across the U.S. disapprove, and no liberal or conservative political party is coming in to save the day. Instead, people are beginning to take matters into their own hands.
View All Upcoming Events
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Democracy Besieged: An Awareness Raising Event
April 18, 2018Leila Conners, Chris Hedges, Walton Goggins, Karenna Gore, Thom Hartmann, George DiCaprio and many others are gathering with CELDF's Thomas Linzey, examining the legal structures forcing harm into communities - and what communities are doing about it.
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The Earth and Our Lives: How Community Rights, Corporate Rights and the Rights of Nature Affect Our Future
April 23, 2018CELDF's Chad Nicholson and PACRN's Malinda Clatterbuck present on Community Rights and Rights of Nature to challenge corporate interests and transform our communities.
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By What Right? Legal Rights of the Salish Sea
May 5, 2018Join us for this workshop on Community Rights and Rights of Nature as communities surrounding the Salish Sea organize to recognize the ecosystem's rights.
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The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) Tribunal on Human Rights, Fracking and Climate Change
May 14, 2018 — May 18, 2018CELDF is participating in the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Session on Human Rights, Fracking and Climate Change. Judges will be asked to consider Rights of Nature, and apply the standards of international human rights law. Join us!
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Featured Articles
Press Release: Colombia Constitutional Court Finds Atrato River Possesses Rights
May 4, 2017Reversing course from mainstream views of nature as property, Colombia's Constitutional Court finds the Atrato River is a rights-bearing entity - a necessary step to protect life on earth.
Blog: The NRA, Gun Violence, and Ceiling Preemption
March 14, 2018Communities can't adopt the gun laws they believe would best protect their health, safety, and welfare. Here's why - and what communities can do about it.
Blog: Black History Month, White Supremacy, and Community Rights
February 25, 2018CELDF's Tish O'Dell shares discoveries of her own white privilege when fracking came into her community - and how Dr. Martin Luther King and Black Lives Matter inform her work with communities today
A Problem: Corporations have been granted rights allowing them to wreak havoc in communities for over 200 years.We can stop this. Here's how...
Fight for a more democratic tomorrow, today.
Our democracy has been usurped by corporations. Please give today to help CELDF return the democratic process to the people. CELDF uses every dollar of your donation to fight for rights.
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Water Protectors in Nottingham, NH
Show Your SupportNottingham, NH, residents have stood their ground to protect the Lamprey River Watershed, a water ecosystem supporting innumerable human and natural communities. They are up against water thieves – corporations taking their water against the will of the people.
For over a decade they have enforced their Community Bill of Rights banning corporate water withdrawals. CELDF stands with them.
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Lincoln Co, OR, Residents & the Siletz River Challenge the Timber Industry
Show Your SupportFor decades, Lincoln County, OR, residents and surrounding ecosystems have been subjected to toxic aerially spraying of pesticides by the timber industry.
Today, they’ve had enough. Working with CELDF, they are asserting the rights of the Siletz River, their own rights to clean air and pure water, and – together – they are challenging the timber industry.
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Grant Township, PA: A Stand to Protect Their Water & Their Community
Show Your SupportFor more than 3 years, Grant Township, PA, residents have been fighting PGE’s proposed frack wastewater injection well. Now their own Department of Environmental Protection has turned on them as well. Grant residents are unwavering in their commitment to protect their community.
CELDF is standing with them.