"jatun yacu – Amazon of Rights" - Movie screening and new avenues to reflect on rights of nature
The Democratic (Re)Configurations of Sustainability Transformations research group of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (IASS Potsdam) is pleased to invite you to a screening and discussion of the documentary film: jatun yacu – amazon of rights, produced by our project leader, Dr. M. Cecilia Oliveira, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Riegner and Alexander Ziegler. We are looking forward to exploring new avenues to reflect on rights of nature with you and our two guests: Dr. Riccarda Flemmer, Hamburg University/ FU, and Laura Duarte, ECCHR.
The event will take place on September 29 from 14:00-15:30 (MESZ). There will be a live screening in the IASS ballroom in Potsdam (attendance limited to 30 persons) as well as an interactive live transmission via Zoom.
Film Description
“Jatun Yacu” is the indigenous name, in Quechua language, for one of the tributaries of the Amazon river in Ecuador. As the Amazon river flows from its source to the Atlantic Ocean, it crosses four countries with different legal systems. This documentary film traces the ebb and flow of rights in and of the Amazon across space and time, ethnographically exploring the question of what it means for a river to have rights, where these rights come from and what they might look like visually.
The film uses case studies to analyze the struggle for rights and legal subjectivity of the Amazon, as well as the problems these rights address and those which they produce. What does it mean if nature shifts from legal object to subject? Who speaks for nature? If everyone can claim the rights of nature and if everyone is responsible for nature, may it be that ultimately no one is?
Trailer: https://youtu.be/0HWKBpBGCx0
Directors/researchers
Dr. M. Cecilia Oliveira is project leader for the group Democratic re-configurations of sustainability transformations at the IASS, Potsdam, Germany. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.
Prof. Michael Riegner is postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University Berlin and, as of 1.10.2021, assistant professor of international law at Erfurt University. He holds a PhD from Humboldt University, an LLM from NYU and a law degree from Passau University. He publishes on international law, comparative constitutional law, and law and development.
Alexander Ziegler (editor) is a journalist based in Berlin with a focus on writing and producing video documentaries about science, education and agriculture. He has produced content for German Tv, international education institutions and thematic projects.
Guest Speakers
Dr. Riccarda Flemmer holds a PhD in political science and is affiliated to trAndeS – Postgraduate Program on Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region of the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on resource conflicts, indigenous peoples’ rights and contested ontologies. She is co-chair of the Latin American Studies Association’s Amazonia section.
Laura Duarte is a lawyer and human rights researcher, currently working as a legal advisor and Bertha Justice Fellow within the Business and Human Rights program of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).
Registration
Please register for the online session using this link
or for the session at IASS with this link
For those attending the live viewing of the film at the IASS, 3G hygiene protocol will apply (proof of testing, vaccination and/or recovery) as well as the obligation to register and use a mask unless seated.
