This article studies the recognition of Río Atrato as a subject of rights through Judgment T-622-16 of the Constitutional Court, in a case without precedent in Colombian Law. To contextualize this jurisprudential milestone, the authors argue that the current regulations failed to protect the biodiversity and related rights of the inhabitants of the areas near the Atrato River. The methodology involved an analysis of the jurisprudential line of the judgments that preceded the case analyzed, as well as the study of theoretical postulates and current environmental regulations from an analytical-deductive approach. As results, the authors present the first jurisprudential line of the Río Atrato judgment, supported by their own reflections that demonstrate the birth of a new stage of environmental law in Colombia.

Restrictions on the scope of government action by forcing authorities to act exclusively to the extent permitted by law are a guarantee against abuses of power when authorities’ decisions have environmental implications. Such control ensures that this becomes a reality because it provides a way by which to overcome administrative inefficiency and avoid departure from the essential aims of public institutions. Environmental commitment is necessary for denationalization of the state; it appears as a subsidiary to the initiative and participation of citizens, which, by shifting functions to the private sphere, is also linked to destatization strategies. In light of these assumptions, and the consideration that decisions should not be taken without the input of communities, this article advocates the inclusion of citizens’ voices in environmental policies and management. These issues are addressed from the perspective of Hans Jonas’ ethic of responsibility, with the aim to develop socially responsible and participatory projects.

El presente artículo tiene por objetivo realizar un contraste de los elementos de la política farmacéutica en Colombia frente a las políticas de la Organización Mundial de la Salud para garantizar el derecho de acceso a los medicamentos. Se llevó a cabo análisis basado en el método inductivo a partir del marco jurídico de referencia recopilado en normatividad, doctrina y jurisprudencia vigente, para así lograr abordar este escenario desde una óptica crítica y propositiva, a manera de resultados. Así, los autores presentan al final del texto una serie de lineamientos y recomendaciones que puedan servir de guía para mejorar los indicadores de acceso a los medicamentos en Colombia.

Con el propósito de caracterizar las expresiones culturales tradicionales, generalmente poco abordadas por los estudiosos de los conocimientos tradicionales y la propiedad intelectual, se caracterizaron las expresiones culturales asociadas al ritual de Lumbalú de San Basilio de Palenque. Se plantea el estado actual de desprotección de este conjunto de saberes, tradiciones y costumbres que por su configuración son ‘obras’, y se concluye que debe existir un marco regulatorio comprensivo que contemple las necesidades y expectativas de las comunidades; que además sea capaz de garantizar el consentimiento libre, previo e informado para su acceso mediante la consulta previa, y la justa repartición de beneficios por la explotación económica, entre otras estrategias de protección que buscan otorgarle una categoría especial a las expresiones culturales tradicionales como un eslabón clave de los conocimientos tradicionales.

This article studies the recognition of Río Atrato as a subject of rights through Judgment T-622-16 of the Constitutional Court, in a case without precedent in Colombian Law. To contextualize this jurisprudential milestone, the authors argue that the current regulations failed to protect the biodiversity and related rights of the inhabitants of the areas near the Atrato River. The methodology involved an analysis of the jurisprudential line of the judgments that preceded the case analyzed, as well as the study of theoretical postulates and current environmental regulations from an analytical-deductive approach. As results, the authors present the first jurisprudential line of the Río Atrato judgment, supported by their own reflections that demonstrate the birth of a new stage of environmental law in Colombia.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the liberal narrative on the recognition of the rights of nature in Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia, as well as study, from constitutional grammar and recognition processes, the interpretation of this phenomenon by Andean constitutionalism. The methodology chosen by the authors was the documentary analysis of the collected sources, such as laws, jurisprudence, and national and international legal doctrine, among others. As a result, the paper compiles some reflections on the scope of the rights of nature in these countries, from the constitutional grammar of the norms where this recognition was achieved. In addition, the authors propose a way of understanding the relationships in this process of legal recognition. All this occurred as a logical consequence of the constitutional interpretations of Andean constitutionalism, based on interculturality, plurinationality, and respect for biodiversity and cultural diversity.