Question

how do rivers behave like a human being please give me answer​

Answer 1

Explanation:

In March 2017, the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand was the first river to officially be granted the status of a legal person. This declaration was the result of a legal battle, ongoing for more than 150 years, between the Whanganui Iwi (a Māori tribe) and the New Zealand Government. The dispute began in the second half of the nineteenth century when certain fishing rights of the Whanganui Iwi were challenged by the government. It ended in 2014 when both sides signed the Whanganui River Deed of Settlement, 1 which was confirmed and superseded by the Te Awa Tupua Act in 2017. The Te Awa Tupua Act implements the provisions of the Whanganui River Deed of Settlement and constitutes a milestone by settling the historical claims of the Whanganui Iwi with regard to the Whanganui River. The document assigns to the river the ‘rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person’ and declares two guardians responsible for maintaining the river’s ‘health and well-being’ (New Zealand Ministry of Justice 2017, 15 and 88). One of those guardians is a representative of the New Zealand Government, while the other is a representative of the Whanganui Iwi, which, by virtue of its genealogical origins, exercises the customary rights and responsibilities in relation to the Whanganui River (New Zealand Ministry of Justice 2017, 8).

The Te Awa Tupua Act establishes the office Te Pou Tupua, which comprises the two guardians. They are supported by an advisory group, Te Karewao, and a strategy group, Te Kōpuka (New Zealand Ministry of Justice 2017, 27–33). As the Act focuses primarily on legal and institutional questions, it does not provide a detailed account of the normative framework upon which the guardians should rely. It specifies merely that they should speak and act on behalf of the river and promote and protect its health and wellbeing (New Zealand Ministry of Justice 2017, 18–20). The document itself, then, contains no criteria to help the guardians come to informed decisions or to provide a basis upon which they could be held accountable for those decisions.