PROPOSAL FOR A WORLD WATER LAW
Towards Radical Whole-System Healing
Water is the source and sustenance for all Life on Earth. The natural law of Water is to give life and vitality to all living beings without privilege or prejudice. The most effective strategy towards ensuring peace and a thriving world for all of Life, is to organize globally across cultures and nations to restore this original law of Nature.
The Proposal for a World Water Law is an evolutionary impulse inspired by ancestral wisdom and the many Water and Life Guardians devoted to the protection, healing and flourishing of Earth and all her inhabitants. Many people and groups have already endorsed the World Water Law and joined the Global Alliance.
We cannot address our current challenges from within the same systems that created them. The proposal is not intended as a legal document to be ratified within our current political structures. The universal common sense principles provide a unifying compass for a people-led global movement towards realigning human laws, cultures and systems with the well-being of all Life. Organizing locally, bioregionally and globally to focus our collective wisdom, resources and creativity on the 4 principles of the World Water Law will contribute to rapid and radical whole-system healing.
The proposal and the alliance are not led by any one group. The drafting of the proposal as well as the formation and mapping of the alliance are offered as foundations for local-to-global community-led self-organization.
"The water of life, the first medicine of the world, is so precious to every living thing that grows, breathes and lives. The water is the female blood of Mother Earth that brings life. A woman brings children in this world through water of the womb, she then cleans her children with water, cooks and feeds them with water. She plants and waters her gardens. The trees that grow and provide air need water. Water is life and as we say Mni Wiconi - Water of Life! We will continue to stand for the water so that we may live.
The World Water Law is a great way for all people to unite around our water and demand a binding international law protecting one of our Mother Earth’s prime resources."
— Ta Mak'a Wast'e Win, Her Good Earth Woman, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard
The escalating social, health and environmental crises are a stark wake-up call for all humanity to act on our shared needs and priorities:
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our personal health
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healthy, supportive and resilient local communities
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local access to our basic necessities
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a healthy world for ourselves, our children, and for all of Life
The global and rapid response to the pandemic has shown the world that it is possible for governments to coordinate around a shared crisis, and for citizens to change their behavior, in a very short space of time. Our next step, as interconnected and interdependent citizens of Earth, is to ensure that this global response is not limited to containing and treating symptoms. With the far-reaching impact of the virus, humanity is faced with an unprecedented opportunity for a “global reset” — to put in place new, foundational laws and systems that proactively cultivate the health and vitality of the planet and all its inhabitants for generations to come. The most efficient and holistic strategy for restoring both human and environmental health is to first focus on Water — the foundation of health, and the source and sustenance of all Life on Earth.
World Water Law
We, citizens of Earth, call for and commit to working together to ensure that a binding international law is put in place for the immediate and universal protection of all Water, as the first vital step towards global cooperation for effective, worldwide social and ecological healing.
The World Water Law requires:
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the uncompromising protection and restoration of all natural water sources, watersheds, aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands, estuaries and oceans
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the rewilding of ecosystems, necessary for the restoration of the planetary water-cycle
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the guaranteed, free access of all humans and animals to natural, uncontaminated Water
The World Water Law holds all governments, corporations, communities, and individuals, fully accountable for their impact on all waters everywhere. This one Law serves as a unifying foundation for all governments and citizens to work together with community-led wisdom and stewardship councils in ways that effectively serve the health and vitality of the whole.
This global initiative honors the many Water Guardians around the world who have dedicated their lives to the protection and reverence of Water on behalf of all of Life.
The Proposal for a World Water Law is the first global initiative towards the implementation of Codes for a Healthy Earth.