@article{Guzmán_2019, title={Decolonizing Law and expanding Human Rights: Indigenous Conceptions and the Rights of Nature in Ecuador}, url={https://djhr.revistas.deusto.es/article/view/1702}, DOI={10.18543/djhr-4-2019pp59-86}, abstractNote={<p>This article critically addresses the crucial aspects for understanding the rights of nature as a resistance platform for indigenous peoples in Ecuador. By basing my arguments in a post-colonial approach to human rights and the concept of coloniality of power, I argue that the lack of inclusion of indigenous knowledge in human rights is a manifestation of neocolonialism. Thus, the introduction of non-Western narratives into the human rights discourse/practice is an attempt to decolonize what has traditionally been a colonialist discourse. Later on, I develop the concept of ‘rights of nature’ arguing that they are a practical example of the inclusion of indigenous narratives in human rights. In the end, the biggest problem is that the dominant Western thought does not challenge the human-nature relationships that are responsible for nature’s degradation. In this regard, I use ethnographic material, post-colonial anthropological theory, and symbolic ecology to argue that Amazonian indigenous nature ontologies —which understand the nature/culture relationship in a very different way— are contained in the rights of nature that the Ecuadorian Constitution enshrines. Therefore, becoming a legal tool with a significant potential for indigenous people’s historical justice.</p><p><strong>Received</strong><span>: 01 September 2019</span><br /><strong>Accepted</strong><span>: 05 December 2019</span><br /><strong>Published online</strong><span>: 20 December 2019</span></p&gt;}, number={4}, journal={Deusto Journal of Human Rights}, author={Guzmán, Juan José}, year={2019}, month={Dec.}, pages={59-86} }