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.
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News from the Grassroots
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Media Release: Lake Erie and Local Residents File Court Motions to Defend Rights of Lake
Lake Erie files a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by industry to overturn the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
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Cleveland.com: Lake Erie – yes, the body of water – asks to be let into lawsuit over bill of rights
The Great Lake Erie files to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the agricultural industry to overturn Toledo, Ohio's, Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
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Media Release: 2nd Right to a Healthy Climate Law Adopted in New Hampshire
Nottingham, New Hampshire, residents adopt the second right to healthy climate law in the state at Town Meeting.
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Media Release: First Right to Climate Law Adopted in New Hampshire
Yesterday, Exeter, New Hampshire, residents adopted their Right to a Healthy Climate Ordinance at Town Meeting. This is the first right-based climate law in the state.
View All Upcoming Events
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Creating a Community Rights Ordinance in Jefferson County, WA
March 11, 2019CELDF's Kai Huschke in Jefferson County, WA, where communities and local groups are joining together to stop aerially sprayed pesticides.
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You Are Legally Being Poisoned and Why That’s Not the Worst of It
March 12, 2019Learn about our legal system that forces harm into our communities - and what communities across the U.S. are doing about. Join us!
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Invisible Hand Screening at Cleveland Humanities Festival
March 27, 2019Check out two screenings of Invisible Hand, a documentary on the growing Rights of Nature movement sparked by communities protecting their air, soil, and water.
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We the People 2.0 Screening in Brentwood, NH
April 1, 2019Join CELDF's New Hampshire community organizer in Brentwood, NH, for a screening of We the People 2.0.
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CELDF’s Democracy School in Newport, OR
April 5, 2019 — April 6, 2019Join us for Democracy School in Lincoln County, Oregon, April 5th - 6th!
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.
CELDF Donation
Thank you for donating to CELDF!
Your generous donations are advancing the Community Rights and Rights of Nature movements! Our work is possible because of your support.
CELDF has helped communities to protect themselves from environmental, democratic, and other harms by securing rights since 1995.
Thank you for helping CELDF return the democratic process to the people!
Featured Articles
The Guardian: Our laws make slaves of nature. It’s not just humans who need rights
May 23, 2018As the recognition of Rights of Nature grows globally, we must move beyond thinking of nature as having legal personhood rights. We must recognize rights of ecosystems to existence, regeneration and restoration.
Blog: Dangerous to the 1% – An Informed Public
May 16, 2018An uninformed, passive public is easy to for the 1% to lead. We must become knowledgeable - not just about what is happening, but how and why. We must take on difficult questions and challenge the status quo if we are going to create a new way of life.
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...
Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of our current legal system.
Learn how to better understand the issues of our time.
Discover the keys to affect lasting change.
Learn MoreShow Your Support. Take Action Now.
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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.