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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The Daily Sentinel: Meigs BOE among defendants in Civil Rights lawsuit
Meigs County, Ohio, residents join six other communities in a federal Civil Rights lawsuit. The suit alleges Ohio government officials have routinely blocked valid citizen initiatives from the ballot.
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StarTribune: Minnesota tribe asks: Can wild rice have its own legal rights?
Traditional indigenous legal principles view nature and people as part of a whole. Today, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe is part of a growing movement to recognize these principles in modern law.
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Press Release: White Earth Band Enacts First-of-its-Kind Rights of Nature Law
CELDF assisted Honor the Earth to develop the first Rights of Nature law to protect a plant species, which was adopted by the White Earth Band of Ojibwe.
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The Gazette: Boards of elections, secretary of state sued over ballot rejections
Medina County, Ohio, residents are part of a federal Civil Rights lawsuit filed to protect the rights of Ohio citizens to vote on proposed citizen initiatives. The lawsuit was filed after years of state officials blocking community members from the ballot.
View All Upcoming Events
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We the People 2.0 Screening in Exeter, NH
February 21, 2019The right to a healthy climate is advanced by Exeter, NH, residents. Join them February 21st for a screening of We the People 2.0.
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Offsetted: On the Rights of Trees
February 22, 2019CELDF's Mari Margil joins this conversation on shifting our use of trees as offset carbons to recognizing their rights to simply be trees. Hosted by Columbia University. Join us!
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New Directions in Environmental Law Conference: Global Climate Justice
March 2, 2019Join CELDF's leader of our International Center for the Rights of Nature at the New Directions in Environmental Law Conference in New Haven, CT.
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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.