Exploring Ocean-related Rights in a Transforming World

In the midst of the biodiversity and climate crises, the world is looking to the rapidly growing and impactful fields of human and nature-based rights as a promising toolkit for achieving more sustainable futures for humans and the rest of nature. In recent years, there has been enormous progress in both fields related to the ocean, not least in equipping society with legal instruments that support efforts for coping with and reversing the impacts of climate change, overexploitation and pollution on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This contribution draws on rights-based material reviewed in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Thematic Assessment Report on the Underlying Causes of Biodiversity Loss and the Determinants of Transformative Change and Options for Achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. Visions for brighter human-ocean futures, and strategies and corresponding options for achieving transformative change in the ocean context are highlighted through a rights-based lens. Further, we consider watershed initiatives in the rapidly growing legal field in support of marine ecosystem well-being, examining their successes and potential implications for ocean-focussed decision-making. The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (UN 2022), including the right to a stable climate, has been pivotal in initiating strong global action on land and for the ocean. The Ocean Rights Declaration launched in 2025, the supporting Ocean Rights Movement, and the Rights of Nature already declared for ocean components in several nations, all provide promising fundamental shifts in perspectives and governance in the marine realm. We provide a perspective on what human rights and rights of nature are bringing to the decision-making table in terms of the potential synergies, trade-offs and alignments in how they are supporting and/or could jointly encourage more sustainable practices and uses related to the ocean and its rich wildlife, resources, values and functions.