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About Us

OUR TEAM

zoe

Zoe Lujic
Initiator and leader of the initiative

Rights of Nature and permaculture advocate, founder of Earth Thrive org, for promotion and respect of Nature’s right to life, to thrive, regenerate and evolve naturally.

Holds MSc in Environmental Decision Making and is award winning permaculture and RoN practitioner.

Champions Nature rights in her native Balkans and the beloved Mediterranean

Gary

Gary Friedlander
RoN legal advisor

Gary Friedlander is an Earth Law Fellow and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law). Mr. Friedlander earned his JD from the UIC

Law in 1987 and BS from Northwestern University in 1982. He is a member of the Illinois, Northern District of Illinois, and U.S. Supreme Court bars.
Mr. Friedlander is also a photographer focusing his work on Nature, from macro to astrophotography.

From July 2022 to July 2023, Mr. Friedlander served as the Interim Director of UIC Law’s Center for Intellectual Property, Information & Privacy Law.  

Prior to his retirement, after 45 years in the corporate world, Mr. Friedlander was a Senior Legal Executive with a multinational corporation and served as a subject matter expert for a variety of legislative, regulatory, and business issues. He oversaw and managed a large team of in-house attorneys located on five continents supporting over 30 countries.

Ninon

Ninon Crasnier
RoN Legal Intern

Ninon is a French graduate with a Master 1 in Public International Law. She will be pursuing a Master 2 in Public International Law with a specialization in Oceans, Environment, and

Sustainability at Utrecht University next year. She is currently working as an intern at Earth Law Center where she is contributing to legal research and advocacy focused on ocean protection and the rights of nature. Through ELC partnership Ninon is working with our core team on various aspects of the Declaration initiative.

eduardo

Eduardo Salazar Ortuño
RoN Legal Advisor

Rights of Nature advocate, lawyer, Adjunct Professor at the Univerity of Murcia and counsel of environmental law at EcoJusticia. Together with Teresa Vicente, he was a lead voice in achieving

first ever rights of Nature legal recognition for an ecosystem in Europe – Mar Menor coastal lagune in Spain

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Grant Wilson
RoN Legal Advisor

Grant Wilson, Esq., is the Executive Director of Earth Law Center. He is an expert on the Rights of Nature, ecocentric law, and international environmental law and a member of the :

World Commission on Environmental Law and the UN Harmony with Nature Initiative

Jonathan

Jonathan Balcombe
Rights of fishes advisor

JONATHAN BALCOMBE (PhD biology) is the former director of animal sentience at the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy,

 and the author of seven books, including Super Fly (winner of the National Outdoor Book Award), Second Nature, and Pleasurable Kingdom. His books, including his highly acclaimed title What a Fish Knows (available in 17 languages), focus on animals’ inner experiences, and the need for a planet in which all species may thrive. He has appeared in such documentary films as Seaspiracy, and Aquariums: The Dark Hobby, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the BBC, and the National Geographic Channel, and he is a contributor of features and opinions in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Nature, and other publications. www.jonathanbalcombe.com 
 for the animals
Marie

Marie Toussaint
Political advisor

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present and Vice-Chair of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. In 2015, Toussaint founded Notre affaire à tous, an NGO defending a

right to climate justice. She is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development and the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, amongst other.
She is leading the EU’s environmental crime directive for the Greens in the Parliament and supports protection of the environment through criminal law, including ecocide being made a crime in the EU.

Somabha

Dr Somabha Bandopadhay
Legal RoN expert and co-author of the Declaration

Assistant Professor, National Forensic Sciences University, Government of India, Delhi.
Somabha is also one of initiators and Facilitator of the Asia-Pacific Hub of the Global Alliance for the

Rights of Nature – GARN

01-LOGO-Rights-of-the-Mediterranean

Rachelle Adams
Legal RoN expert and co-author of the Declaration

Rachelle has 25 years of experience in Rights of Nature legal issues.
As an attorney for Israel’s Environment Ministry, she worked extensively on

Nature protection and biodiversity issues.

She sits on the Earth Law Center Board of Directors and teaches environmental law at Law Faculty at Hebrew University in Jerusalem