Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime
Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime
The Facts
On Monday, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa presented a court proposal to the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the classification of environmental destruction, or ecocide, as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.
According to the proposal, ecocide is described as "unlawful or wanton acts, committed with knowledge that those acts have a substantial likelihood of causing severe and/or widespread or long-term damage to the environment."According to the proposal, ecocide is defined as "unlawful or wanton acts, committed with knowledge that those acts have a substantial likelihood of causing severe and/or widespread or long-term damage to the environment."
The Spin
Ecocide—, the destruction of nature, destruction—should be a global crime. Revising the Rome Statute of the ICC would criminalize environmental devastation, the fourth most lucrative unlawful activity in the world, which costs $258B annually. ItThis designation would enable the Paris Agreement to force nations to reduce emissions. A global climate emergency requireswould require us to modify the laws; existing regulations will not save the climateplanet.
It is admirable to devote so much time and effort to developing the notion of ecocide, but it is far from acceptable to everyone. The definition needs additional work. However, the exercise has always had a symbolic nature because it is unlikely that two-thirds of state parties will approve an ecocide amendment. Those states most prone to ecocide would likely reject the amendment. Additionally, the US, China, India, and Russia, which are not signatories to the ICC, further complicate the situation.