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| The Chair, of which Amnesty International, Ecologists in Action and the Regional Assembly are part, promotes a popular legislative initiative that needs 500,000 signatures | The University of Murcia officially presented this Thursday the new Chair on Human Rights and Rights of Nature, which also includes Amnesty International, Ecologists in Action and the Regional Assembly.

The objective of this Chair is the defense, promotion, study, dissemination and social awareness of human rights, the rights of nature and the inseparable relationship between them, given the interaction between human beings and the natural elements of ecosystems of which they are part.

The first action promoted by the Chair is the collection of signatures to bring to Congress a popular legislative initiative that allows the Mar Menor to be given legal personality, a step through which the ecosystem would acquire rights, which would facilitate its protection. "The time has come to take a qualitative leap and adopt a new scientific, legal and political model that recognizes rights to nature", defended Professor Teresa Vicente, director of the Chair, during the presentation, which took place in the Gallery of Rectors of Convalescence.

If the objective is achieved, the Mar Menor would be the first ecosystem in Europe to achieve legal personality. The signature sheets sealed by the Central Electoral Board arrived yesterday from Madrid and for a period of approximately nine months, signatures will be collected through the notaries, among whom there are staff from the University of Murcia and people who belong to the collaborating associations of the Chair. Parallel to the collection of signatures, the Chair now also starts interdisciplinary scientific work to provide the technical content required by said law at the time.

Teresa Vicente, tenured professor of Philosophy of Law, has especially highlighted the interdisciplinary composition of the Chair, with members from the branches of social sciences, experimental sciences and the arts; a necessary approach to be able to achieve the objectives that are raised. "With this Chair it is intended to promote the commitment of public institutions and social organizations with a joint ecological and social action, to face climate change and promote an ecological and social transition that is respectful of the rights of people, the rights of future generations and the rights of Nature ", said Vicente, who explains that" the great challenge we have today is to recognize the human being as an integral part of nature and not as a being destined to dominate it to put it exclusively at its service ". The rector of the University of Murcia, José Luján, for his part, praised the initiative and recalled "that the University has a transforming function of society" and the Chair of Human Rights and Rights of Nature was created to comply with that function. The presentation ceremony was also attended by the deputies of the Regional Assembly María Dolores Martínez Pay and Juan Antonio Mata Tamboleo; Carmen Rico Verdú, spokesperson for Amnesty International in Murcia; and Pedro Luengo Michel, spokesperson and coordinator of Ecologists in Action of the Region of Murcia.

Source: Universidad de Murcia