In April 2025, the City of Paris launched a Citizens’ Assembly to explore the idea of granting rights to the Seine. Over three weekends, 50 randomly selected Parisians came together to develop proposals aimed at better protecting the river and rethinking how it is used.
Lila Durix, project manager at the Department of Ecological and Climate Transition for the City of Paris, coordinated the initiative. She shares the background and stakes of the process.
Missions Publiques. You supported the Citizens’ Assembly for the Rights of the Seine. Why this subject, and what was your role in the process?
Lila Durix. At the Department of Ecological and Climate Transition in the Paris City Hall, I’m the project lead on a very specific topic: reducing single-use plastics. I worked on this during the Olympic Games, aiming to cut down plastic bottle use, particularly with partners like Coca-Cola. And we saw great results.
After the Games, the question of legacy quickly emerged. One of the most powerful legacies is the Seine. In 2024, for the first time in a century, Olympic events took place in the river. And this summer, we’re aiming to open it for public swimming starting July 5. That represents a real shift in how we see the Seine.
It was in this context that I was given the mission to coordinate the Citizens’ Assembly for the Rights of the Seine. It’s part of the Olympic legacy and the broader ambition to protect the river and rethink its future. The Seine is increasingly valued, but also increasingly under threat. We’re now discussing its many uses: logistics, economy, recreation, tourism. The riverbanks have become vibrant spaces: people walk, cycle, and soon will swim there. It’s also part of our climate adaptation strategy.
This was truly a team effort. We brought together multiple departments from the City: communications, legal affairs, local democracy, education (especially through the Climate Academy), and more. In total, around twenty people contributed. My role was to act as a coordinator, bringing together all these areas of expertise to build a strong working framework. The Climate Academy was key in developing accessible educational materials, as the topic is quite complex. We also worked closely with elected officials, including, for the first time, a deputy mayor specifically in charge of the Seine. That changed everything. The Seine is no longer seen only as a logistical challenge, but as a living ecosystem.
Missions Publiques. We’re seeing more and more initiatives around these issues, like the Call of the Rhône, the Loire Parliament, or citizen efforts around the Garonne. How is this approach both complementary and unique?
Lila Durix. We didn’t start from scratch. We drew inspiration from other projects, the Loire Parliament, the Call of the Rhône, the Tavignanu in Corsica… and we even invited people from those initiatives to come and share their experience.
What makes the Paris approach unique is our commitment to follow through, especially with a draft law in progress. Also, in Paris, the issue of the Seine’s rights intersects with many challenges: water quality, biodiversity, transport, climate… The key question is: how can we balance multiple, legitimate uses while protecting the living environment? And beyond the city itself, there’s a will to adopt a broader, territorial approach involving the full Seine basin, from its source to the estuary, with the support of the “Entente Axe-Seine” network, which includes Paris, Greater Paris, Rouen, Le Havre, and more.
The first step was to map existing initiatives on nature rights, in France and abroad. Then we had to design how to introduce the topic to citizens over a limited time frame, just three weekends. We created a kind of “educational prototype” with the Climate Academy to deliver knowledge in an accessible way. We also worked closely with Missions Publiques and Planète Citoyenne, who have solid experience in citizens’ assemblies.
A key moment was preparing the experts. That wasn’t easy, we asked them not to say everything, not to dominate the discussion, to focus on essentials and simplify their language. That shift in posture was hard for some of them, and they needed support. On the other hand, the citizens quickly embraced the process. They were highly engaged and demanding, and that was great to see.
As for the panel itself, we randomly selected 50 citizens from voter lists. We sent out 10,000 letters, and about 4% responded, around 400 people. From there, we chose 50 participants, making sure to have a balanced group in terms of age, gender, education level, and neighborhood, to reflect the diversity of Paris’s population.
"I think everyone who took part, citizens and organizers alike, came away changed.
Lila Durix
Project manager at the Department of Ecological and Climate Transition for the City of Paris
Missions Publiques. One of the citizens’ proposals was to give the Seine legal personhood. There’s a lot of talk today about the “rights of nature.” What would that actually mean for the Seine, and why is it important? What happens next for the 9 proposals?
Lila Durix. The idea is to grant the Seine rights as a natural entity, the right to be protected, to regenerate, and not to be polluted. And also the right to be represented in court if those rights are violated. It’s not a simple concept. Even the experts disagree, and it sparked rich debates between citizens and professionals.
But it also raises a deeper question: what place do we want to give to the living world? How do we move beyond a human-centered view of nature? Respecting the living world also means protecting ourselves.
The City of Paris has committed to follow up on this work. The citizens will be brought back together in the fall to review what has been adopted, implemented (or not) and why.
At the same time, a draft law is being written to recognize the Seine’s rights. It’s a long and complex process, with many decisions to be made, from governance to the scope of the law to which rights will be granted.
Missions Publiques. This was your first Citizens’ Assembly. What did you personally take away from the experience?
Lila Durix. I think everyone who took part, citizens and organizers alike, came away changed. What stood out to me was the quality of the discussions, the listening, the mutual respect. At a time when dialogue is often difficult, it was powerful to see 50 people, drawn by lot, come together and build something collectively. It really showed the strength of the Missions Publiques and Planète Citoyenne teams.
I don’t see public engagement the same way anymore. These processes build citizenship. They make people want to get involved, to understand, to act. And they raise the bar, which is a good thing.
Today, those citizens are still in touch. They’ve built real connections. Some even meet up for friendly drinks along the Seine. This story is still being written.
