HOW DO WE MAKE ECOCIDE AN INTERNATIONAL CRIME?

Right now, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) lists four crimes:

  • Genocide

  • Crimes Against Humanity

  • War Crimes

  • Crimes of Aggression (recently added) 

The Statute can be amended to add a fifth crime: ECOCIDE. 

Unlike suing and fining corporations (who simply budget for this possibility), making ecocide a crime creates an arrestable offence. It makes those individuals who are responsible for acts or decisions that lead to severe environmental harm liable to criminal prosecution.


A simple 4 stage process (with POWER and BEAUTY)

1.  Proposal

Any state which has ratified (officially agreed to) the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) may propose an amendment.  There are currently 123 of these “States Parties”.

THE POWER OF THIS: As soon as a state (or group of states) submits a proposal, we will start to see changes in the way corporations behave.  Investors, banks and insurers will start to avoid dangerous investments because they will know the law is coming within a few years.
The time period is essential, to allow businesses to adjust their practices – it acts as a transition period. 


THE BEAUTY OF THIS: Corporate success depends on public and investor confidence.  No CEO or financier wants to be seen in the same way as a war criminal. A law of ECOCIDE on the horizon will therefore signal the end of corporate immunity – and begin to redirect business and finance away from seriously harmful practices.

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2. Admissibility

This requires a majority of those present and voting at the next annual assembly of the ICC to agree that the amendment can be considered.

THE POWER OF THIS: The ICC Assembly works on a one-state, one-vote basis.  The voice of a small Pacific island is therefore just as powerful as that of a large nation.  (And there are lots more of them.)

THE BEAUTY OF THIS: There has never been a more suitable time for this discussion.  States will want to be seen to be taking this issue – and therefore this amendment – seriously. 

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3. Adoption into the Statute

This requires at least a 2/3 majority of States Parties (currently 82/123) to be in favour of the amendment. It is likely to take place at a special Crime Review Conference, where the final text of the amendment will be discussed and agreed amongst States Parties.

THE POWER OF THIS: Once the law is adopted into the Statute, the crime exists (even if it is not yet enforceable).  This gives it immediate moral power in people’s minds.

THE BEAUTY OF THIS: Harming nature will begin to feel the same as harming human beings.  This will help us to grasp the fact of our connection with the natural living world.  This reality is inescapable.  Without a healthy Earth, there can be no healthy human beings,
as the recent pandemic has shown us, and as indigenous cultures around the world already know. 

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4. Ratification

States Parties can then ratify (officially submit their agreement), and must enforce the law in their own country one year later.

THE POWER OF THIS: Ecocide becomes a criminal offence in the countries where it is ratified.  Beyond that, under universal jurisdiction principles, any ratifying nation may, on its own soil, arrest a non-national for ecocide committed elsewhere, as long as they consider the crime to be serious enough.  So even countries which are not States Parties (for example the US and China) will be affected.

THE BEAUTY OF THIS: The more countries ratify the crime, the more the big polluters will find their room to operate shrinking… and the more appealing it will become to work in harmony with nature.

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THIS LAW CREATES THE BRIDGE TO A LIVEABLE WORLD

Next up – what WE do