Ecocide law

Ecocide law is an initiative to make extensive damage, mass environmental destruction, or loss of ecosystems an international crime. Ecocide means the killing of our home – eco from oikos, house in Greek, and cide from cidere, to kill in Latin. 

As a concept, ecocide is over 50 years old. In the 1970s biology professor Arthur W Glaston used the term when protesting against US military use of herbicide and defoliant chemical Agent Orange to destroy the foliage cover and crops of enemy troops. To this day, ecocide is only considered a war crime at the International Criminal Court, and no charges have ever been filed. A filing requires an international attack, so corporations and states which cause water and air pollution or who participate in illegal deforestation and cause oil spills cannot be prosecuted for environmental damage in peacetime. A 2018 UN report described a fragmented, piecemeal, unclear and reactive environmental law regime. 

In 2010, Polly Higgins proposed a definition of ecocide to the UN Law Commission, which Pope Francis referred to in his call for ecocide to become a crime in 2019. In 2021, an independent panel of experts was commissioned by Stop Ecocide International to propose a definition of ecocide for international adoption, which would make it an arrestable offence should individuals act or make decisions that cause severe damage to the environment. Currently, ecocide is a crime in 11 countries and EU member states have two years to adopt a new environmental crime directive equivalent to Ecocide into national legislation. The Netherlands, Scotland, Belgium and the Catalan parliament are in the process of finalising their versions of ecocide law, as well as Mexico and Brazil. 

In Belgium, punishment for individuals committing ecocide in the North Sea and nuclear waste management is 20 years in prison with corporations facing fines of up to 1.6 million euros. The Mexican bill recommends imprisonment of up to 15 years. It is considered a turning point in legal frameworks, which will acknowledge the intrinsic value of Earth and humanity’s part interconnectedness in the web of life. Stop Ecocide International are hopeful ecocide will be adopted by the International Criminal Court as early as 2025-2026.