Why
Recognizing a right is not enough — someone must also be created to defend it. As early as 1987, the UN’s Brundtland Report warned:
Nearly forty years later, that warning still holds. That is why this doctrine is completed with a concrete institutional proposal: the creation, in every country, of the office of the Future Generations Defender — an independent institution mandated to represent and defend the interests of those not yet born, who cannot take part in the decisions and public policies that may today compromise their future. This is not an institution for the future: it is a present-day initiative to protect what is most precious to humankind — the possibility of a dignified life on a healthy planet.
Comparative experiences
The creation of the Future Generations Defender is beginning to take hold in a number of countries that got ahead of their time.
These are joined by experiences in:
Each with a different design, but all sharing the same purpose: introducing an institutional voice for the long term within public decision-making.
The opportunity for Spain and Latin America
This office should exist in every country in the world. My specific commitment, and the starting point of this proposal, is to drive its adoption in Spain and Latin America — the region where I see the clearest gap, and where the Escazú Agreement already offers a legal framework to build on. Every new country that adopts it, anywhere in the world, is a step toward it ceasing to be an exceptional figure and becoming a natural institution.
Join the proposal
This proposal grows stronger with every person who backs it. Lawyers, academics, legal professionals, and public officials from any country can publicly join the proposal to create the Future Generations Defender, through the International Support Network for the Recognition of Rights for Future Generations and the Creation, at the Local, Regional, National and International Level, of the Office of the Future Generations Defender, an initiative led by the Future Generations Foundation.
Read the full adhesion document
Proclaiming that future generations are those who do not yet exist but who will exist and will inherit the Earth.
Recalling that the decisions made by those living today may affect the life and rights of those born years, decades or many centuries from now, and that the present generation is the guardian of the Earth’s natural resources for the people who will live on the planet in the future,
Aware that humanity inhabiting the planet at present has a moral duty to protect the environmental, cultural and social rights of future generations,
Concerned about the fate of future generations in the face of the vital challenges the planet faces today,
Determined to help ensure that the burden of the past does not compromise the needs or interests of future generations, and to leave them a better world,
Resolved to act so that present generations become fully aware of their responsibilities toward future generations,
Recognizing that future generations may hold rights and present generations obligations toward them,
Affirming the need to establish new global instruments of collaboration and solidarity between generations and to promote intragenerational solidarity with a view to protecting humanity on Earth,
Moved by the idea that the Future Generations Defender is an institution whose purpose is to protect the interests of generations to come by working with present generations, as a guardian watching over the humanity of the future,
Convinced that the time has come to pursue initiatives at the local, regional, national, international and intergenerational level in every territory of the planet for the recognition of future generations as subjects of rights, so that the figure of the Future Generations Defender becomes a reality on a global scale,
through this document,
WE DECLARE:
Adhering to the International Support Network for the Recognition of Rights for Future Generations and the Creation, at the local, regional, national and international level, of the Office of the Future Generations Defender.
Download the adhesion document (PDF) →
Join the proposal
Fill in the form below and you will receive by email a certificate confirming your adhesion to the proposal and your membership in the International Support Network for the Recognition of Rights for Future Generations and the Creation of the Office of the Future Generations Defender.
This initiative is advanced institutionally by the Future Generations Foundation, which I chair.