Will “Ecocide” be an International Crime?

Christina Thompson (Anchor, EarthxNews): Calls are growing for “ecocide” to become an international crime.

Broadly defined as the severe widespread and long-term destruction of the environment, scientists and activists are pushing for the International Criminal Court to make ecocide the world’s fifth international crime.

The campaign to expand the ICC law comes amidst a series of global conflicts, including the Palestinian genocide and the war between Ukraine and Russia. Currently the ICC statute includes genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

The interest in prosecuting environmental war crime stems back to the Vietnam War but has fluctuated since that conflict’s end. In 2019, Vanuatu, a small nation in the South Pacific petitioned the court to recognize ecocide as a crime. Then in 2021, a panel of lawyers prepared a draft law which created the legal definition of ecocide to mean “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.

The concept has since been adopted by the ICC, but still remains unpunishable by law. Other ecocentric laws have been implemented around the globe; the European Union adopted its own ecocide law this past November.