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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The News Guard: Aerial Spraying: Lawsuit reaction
Community rights advocates in Lincoln County stand firm on their right to be free from aerially sprayed pesticides. They are fighting to protect Lincoln residents' rights-based ban of the practice, adopted in May.
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Scientific American: Rivers Get Human Rights: They Can Sue to Protect Themselves
Rights of nature has shifted from theory to practice over the last decade, being realized in legal doctrines in U.S. communities and in countries around the world.
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Fosters.com: Community Rights Ordinance saved Nottingham’s water
Our communities are threatened by unwanted development, and our democracy is in crisis. This is what we can do: join together and protect ourselves and the places we live using community rights.
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EugeneWeekly.com: Aerial Spray Ban
Lincoln County, OR, residents recently adopted the nation's first countywide ban on aerially-sprayed pesticides. They're celebrating their win - and preparing to defend their law as it is challenged by industry.
View All Upcoming Events
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Water Quality in NW Ohio and the Great Lake States: A Panel Event
July 6, 2017Join CELDF's Tish O'Dell and other panelists as they explore water quality issues in Ohio and other Great Lake states, what the systemic barriers are to protecting our water, and what communities are doing about it using community rights. Join us!
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Democracy School in Napa, CA
September 29, 2017 — September 30, 2017Sonoma County, CA, residents are organizing to protect their community and ecosystems from unsustainable development. Join them in Democracy School, September 29th - 30th.
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1st U.S. Rights of Nature Symposium
October 27, 2017CELDF's International Center for the Rights of Nature is joining with the Myrin Institute and the Tulane University Law School to hold the first U.S. Rights of Nature Symposium on October 27th. Save the date!
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Democracy School in Ashville, NC
November 3, 2017 — November 4, 2017Asheville, NC, residents host Democracy School as they organize to stop fracked gas infrastructure projects. Learn more here!
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Featured Articles
Blog: The US Constitution Is So 1789. It’s Time for a Serious Overhaul.
May 3, 2017The 1% drive for a constitutional convention, advancing their own corporate interests. But we don't need a convention. We need a whole new constitution.
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.
PR: First Right to Climate Law Passes in Colorado
April 5, 2017Lafayette, CO, is the first community in the state to adopt a right to climate ordinance, recognizing the right of residents to a healthy climate.
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.
Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of our current legal system.
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Discover the keys to affect lasting change.
Learn MoreShow Your Support. Take Action Now.
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Ohio Counties Fighting for Their Rights and Their Future
Show Your SupportOhio residents in Medina, Portage, and Athens Counties are fighting to protect themselves from fracking wastewater injection wells, pipelines, compressor stations, and more. In response, the corporate states is placing people’s environmental and democratic rights in their cross-hairs.
These communities aren’t blinking.
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Sign Up Now to Support Youngstown, OH, Fighting for Community Rights
Show Your SupportYoungstown, OH, residents, like many communities across the U.S., live under a structure of law and governance that favors big business exploitation and profits over the democratic and environmental rights of communities. With the oil and gas industry and their own local government working against them, the Youngstown community refuses to give up.
Sign up now to show support for their uncompromising commitment to protect their community.