Ecocide: making the destruction of the environment an international crime

Abstract

In light of the ever-growing threat of climate change and increasing harm done to the environment by humans, an independent expert panel established by the Stop Ecocide Foundation concluded its groundbreaking drafting work and a proposed consensus definition of ecocide in June of 2021. The thesis examines the suggested legal definition of ecocide as well as its possible implications. As a result, the research looks at the origin and evolution of the term ecocide, as well as the legal measures that need to be followed to add ecocide to the list of international crimes of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Additionally, the new ecocide definition is being used to look back at the world’s worst industrial disasters (Bhopal, India 1984) to see how it applies to a real human-caused environmental disaster. The main findings reveal that, while including ecocide in the Rome Statute is possible and would send a strong message and the consequences could lead to changes in how countries and businesses think about the relationship between humans and nature, the author is sceptical about how and if an individual would ever be prosecuted for ecocide before the International Criminal Court due to the way the Court operates and how extremely difficult it is to find the single individual responsible for an environmental disaster that could be classified as ecocide.