Ecocide. A crime against the Earth.

By: Tatiana Khokhlova

In June 1998 the UN General Assembly held a five-week diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy. The main goal of this conference was “to finalize and adopt a convention on the establishment of the International Criminal Court (hereinafter, ICC)” [1]As a result, on 17th July 1998, 120 states voted for the adoption of the so-called Rome Statute. Signed by 123 states the Rome Statute entered into force on 11th April 2002 and outlines four international core crimes namely Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crime of Aggression[2]. However, not everyone knows that the Rome Statute was intended to include a fifth crime called ecocide. What does the term ‘ecocide’ actually mean? For what reasons was this crime excluded from the Rome Statute and why are international organisations, NGOs, and famous lawyers still fighting for the recognition of ecocide as a crime against the global community? This article will address these questions.

The word ‘ecocide’ originates from the Latin language and consists of two roots ‘eco’ and ‘cide’. The first root ‘eco’ stands for ‘the household’ while the second root means ‘killing or cutting off’. Here one can easily make a parallel with the word homicide translated from Latin as a ‘murder of human being’.[3] Modern legal glossaries state that ecocide is “mass damage or destruction to ecosystems, committed with the knowledge of the risks”[4]. The topic itself covers an extremely broad aspect of various environmental issues caused by people such as deforestation, oil spills, radioactive contamination, nuclear testing, industrial emissions, fracking, and agricultural pollution.

The history of the term ecocide began in 1970 when, during the conference on War and National Responsibility in Washington DC, American scientist Professor Arthur V. Glasdson first coined the word ecocide and proposed to ban any kinds of unlawful actions against the environment[5]. After the conference of 1970, many politicians and governments started mentioning ecocide as a crime against the planet and some of them tried to make steps towards including it in international legal documents. In 1973 there was an attempt to establish an International Convention on the Crime of Ecocide and five years later the UN Sub-Commission of Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities proposed to add the crime of ecocide to the Genocide Convention[6]. However, all these suggestions did not become reality. Even though crimes against nature are part of some national legislation and included in penal codes of several states such as Kazakhstan[7], Ukraine[8], Russia[9], Kyrgyz Republic[10], Belarus[11], Armenia[12], Moldova[13], Tajikistan[14] and Georgia[15], it is still undeniable that the issue of ecocide lacks international recognition[16].

Another chance to pay attention to the environmental catastrophes occurring around the world appeared with the adoption of the ICC Rome Statute. At first, ecocide succeeded to be a part of the crimes mentioned in the first draft of the Rome Statute but was later excluded from the document under the pressure of the United Kingdom, France, and The Netherlands claiming that the “definition of that crime wasn’t sufficient enough”.[17] The question remained open. However, climate change and the threat of global warming exacerbated the problem and urged the global community to move the process forward. The first state to sound the alarm was Vanuatu, a tiny island-state in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, in 2019 during the ICC Annual Assembly of State Members, the representatives of the Republic of Vanuatu called for “serious consideration of the crime of ecocide” [18]in order to prevent the rise of the sea level. Other island-states like the Maldives and Samoa that were already faced with the same hazard supported Vanuatu. Since this ICC Annual Assembly, a renewed cycle of ecocide recognition has begun.

Currently, the global movement to make ecocide an international crime is growing rapidly. More and more states, even France and The Netherlands, that had rejected previous proposals in 1996-1998, are now cooperating with other governments and international organizations in order to overcome the climate crisis. It is very important to emphasize the role of NGOs in this long fight for a greener future. Stop Ecocide Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded in 2017 in the UK by the Scottish Barrister Poly Higgins and follows the goal of adding the crime of ecocide to Article 5 of the Rome Statute. Stop Ecocide Foundation members have positive views towards recognizing ecocide as an international crime and state that “the entire process of modifying the ICC legal documents is easier than an adoption of completely new statutes or conventions”.[19] Further, the amendment of the ICC Rome Statute may succeed when 2/3 of all Member States vote in favour of it. The proposal cannot be vetoed, and the Member States may only support the initiative or abstain from voting.[20] Moreover, 60 ICC Member States are defined as island-states having issues with raised sea levels and it means that all these states will give their positive votes’[21]. In order to avoid any misunderstandings with the definition of ecocide, the panel of jurists working for Stop Ecocide Foundation established a more precise definition[22] of the term ecocide in summer 2021[23]. The inclusion of ecocide in the Rome Statute would become a great historic event as all crimes that are currently considered international solely address actions against human beings.

The establishment of ecocide as an international crime does not only concern the current damages to the environment but would also make people think of the consequences of their interferences in the environment for the planet and future generations that will have to cope with the catastrophes caused by their ancestors. That’s why it matters.

[1] UN, Establishment of an international Criminal Court, < https://legal.un.org/icc/general/overview.htm > accessed 26 November 2021. [2] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (adopted 17 July 1998, entered into force 1 July 2002) 2187 UNTS 38544 art 5; ‘History’, (Ecocide Law) < https://ecocidelaw.com/history/ > accessed 26 November 2021. [3] Homicide Definition & Meaning (Merriam Webster Dictionary) < https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homicide > accessed 26 November 2021. [4] E van Tright, ‘A Legal Definition of Ecocide’ (Peace Palace Library. The International Law Library, 15 July 2021) <https://peacepalacelibrary.nl/blog/2021/legal-definition-ecocide > accessed 19 November 2021. [5] ‘History’, (Ecocide Law) < https://ecocidelaw.com/history/ > accessed 26 November 2021. [6] Ibid. [7] The Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Article 374. [8] The Criminal Code of Ukraine, Article 441. [9] The Criminal Code of The Russian Federation, Article 358. [10] The Criminal Code of Kyrgyz Republic, Article 374 [11] The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, Article 131 [12] The Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, Article 394 [13] Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, Article 136 [14] Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan, Article 400. [15] Criminal Code of Georgia, Article 409. [16] ‘History’, (Ecocide Law) < https://ecocidelaw.com/history/ > accessed 26 November 2021. [17] Shirleen Chin ‘Why we need a crime of ecocide’ (Green Transparency) < https://www.greentransparency.com/?p=430 > accessed 26 November 2021. [18] ‘Vanuatu Calls for international criminal court to seriously consider recognizing crime of ecocide’(Stop Ecocide International, December 3,2019) < https://www.stopecocide.earth/press-releases-summary/vanuatu-calls-for-international-criminal-court-to-seriously-consider-recognizing-crime-of-ecocide- > accessed 26 November 2021. [19] ‘Ecocide Crime’ (Ecocide Law) < https://ecocidelaw.com/polly-higgins-ecocide-crime/ > accessed 26 November 2021. [20] Ibid. [21] Haroon Siddique, ‘Legal experts worldwide draw up ‘historic’ definition of ecocide’, (The Guardian, 22 June 2021) < https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/22/legal-experts-worldwide-draw-up-historic-definition-of-ecocide> accessed 19 November 2021. [22] Evan Tright, ‘A Legal Definition of Ecocide’ (Peace Palace Library. The International Law Library, 15 July 2021) <https://peacepalacelibrary.nl/blog/2021/legal-definition-ecocide > accessed 19 November 2021. [23] ‘History’, (Ecocide Law) < https://ecocidelaw.com/history/ > accessed 26 November 2021.