Mass murder of non-humans might yet be enshrined as a crime

Recognition of the need to penalise large-scale ecological destruction is dawning on the International Criminal Court, the European Parliament and even some businesses. 

Three small-island states, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa, have put forward the crime of ecocide for consideration by member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The move represents a significant, if belated, step forward in the effort to enshrine mass environmental destruction as a crime under international law.

Under the newly proposed legislation, individual people in “positions of superior responsibility” could for the first time be held criminally accountable if their actions result in severe environmental damage, the clearcutting of primary rainforests, or the destruction of entire river systems. 

Proponents of the ecocide law say that to protect life, the climate and humanity’s habitat, ecocide – defined as “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” – should be a prosecutable crime and be added to the ICC’s statute. 

Professor Philippe Sands KC, Professor of Law at University College London, described the move as “a vital and necessary moment for an effective international law” with the potential of generational change, which reflects “a growing recognition that severe environmental destruction deserves the same legal accountability as other grave international crimes”. 

The formal proposal to amend the Rome Statute to include the crime of ecocide was submitted by Vanuatu to the ICC Assembly’s Working Group on Amendments, co-sponsored by fellow Pacific island nations Fiji and Samoa. Vanuatu was the first nation to call for international recognition of ecocide at the International Criminal Court in 2019. 

Established in 2002, the ICC is the only international tribunal with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or the crime of aggression. 

The last 18 months have seen a wave of new ecocide legislation moving forward at domestic and regional levels. At the start of 2024, Belgium introduced a national crime of ecocide, while the European Union included a ‘qualified’ offence in its newly revised Environmental Crime Directive to tackle ‘conduct comparable to ecocide’. New ecocide legislation is also advancing in other countries, including Peru, Brazil, Scotland, Italy, and Mexico.  

According to the Global Commons Survey 2024, 72% of people in the world’s richest countries support ecocide law. 

Jojo Mehta, co-founder and CEO of campaigning group Stop Ecocide International, said: “Introducing ecocide as an international crime is crucial. The primary goal is ultimately protective: it’s deterrence. Criminal law creates powerful moral as well as legal boundaries, making it clear that extreme levels of harm are not just unlawful but totally unacceptable.”

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD), France’s international development agency, has identified ecocide law as necessary to “ensure planet’s habitability” in a new report.