Read Time: 07 minutes

A panel of 12 independent legal experts from across the globe on Tuesday proposed a “historic” legal definition of ecocide, intended to be adopted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute mass environmental destruction. 

The panel recommends adding “(e)the crime of Ecocide” to Article 5(1) of the Rome Statute.

The draft law defines ecocide as -

“Unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”

The ICC, which is based in The Hague, is authorised to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide that are committed in the territory, or by a national, of a state that has ratified the Rome Statute. As most environmental disasters occur during times of peace, the “ecocide” amendment would give the ICC authority to hold businesses and government leaders accountable for their egregious offences against the environment in times of peace.

The Netherlands-based Stop Ecocide Foundation, along with a coalition of environmentalists, lawyers and human rights advocates, has been pushing since 2017 to make ecocide a crime prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in order to “protect future life on Earth.”

As per media reports, advocates said that if this definition is adopted as the fifth crime before the International Court, it would signal that mass environmental destruction is one of the most morally reprehensible crimes in the world. The court currently prosecutes just four offenses: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.

At an online news conference Tuesday, Philippe Sands, professor of international law at University College London and co-chair of the panel that drafted the definition, said “None of the existing international criminal laws protect the environment as an end in itself, and that's what the crime of ecocide does”.

The International Criminal Court has not commented on the panel’s efforts as of now.

For ecocide to become an offence at ICC, one of the court’s 123 member countries has to formally propose the panel’s recommendations, triggering the start of the amendment process.

Afterward, at the court’s next annual meeting in December, the court’s assembly will hold a vote to determine if the proposal can be considered for enactment. The member states must then secure a two-thirds majority to fully adopt the draft law before each individual nation ratifies and can enforce the law. 

An ecocide law has been mooted for decades. More recently, ecocide was considered for inclusion in the 1998 Rome statute establishing the ICC before being dropped. The Scottish barrister Polly Higgins led a decade-long campaign for it to be recognised as a crime against humanity before her death in 2019.

Since then, Lawmakers from close U.S. allies like France, Belgium, Finland, Spain, Canada, Luxemburg and the European Union have voiced their support for making ecocide a crime. Major greenhouse gas emitters like the United States, China, India and Russia are not members of the court but could weigh in on diplomatic negotiations.

The ICC has been criticised for not investigating major environmental crimes.
In 2016, it said it would assess existing offences, such as crimes against humanity, in a broader context to include environmental destruction and land grabs. Even in 2019 at the ICC’s annual assembly of states parties, several small island nations, including Vanuatu, in the Pacific, and the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, called for “serious consideration” of a crime of ecocide. The Stop Ecocide Foundation initiative has come amid concerns that not enough is being done to tackle the climate and ecological crisis.