The campaign to recognize ecocide as the fifth core international crime took a step forward recently.
According to The Brussels Times, the office of the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague released a policy paper called the "Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage Through the Rome Statute."
The policy paper addressed how destroying or degrading the environment directly affects humans by causing incidents such as displacement, injury, and even death. It said that "those acts may constitute Rome Statute crimes both during armed conflict and in times of peace."
The Rome Statute "is the international treaty that founded the Court," per the ICC website — it established the international court's jurisdiction over core crimes. The four core international crimes currently recognized by the ICC include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
In 2021, an expert panel recommended recognizing ecocide as the fifth core international crime, but the threshold for amending the Rome Statute is high, according to The Brussels Times.
Per the World Economic Forum, the 2021 panel defined ecocide 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."
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Even though ecocide isn't acknowledged as an international crime, the World Economic Forum said it is recognized as a crime in 11 countries. And in 2024, the European Union passed a law criminalizing some forms of environmental damage. However, the word "ecocide" was not included in the law.
Advocates for legally recognizing ecological crimes have noted the potential benefits to human health as well as the natural world.
"Securing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment … requires that we use the tools of the law — including criminal law — more expansively to address environmental harms," said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a 2024 speech.
Jojo Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Stop Ecocide International, spoke to The Brussels Times about the ICC's new policy paper. She said that, although the new policy does not replace the need to formally recognize ecocide, it was welcome progress.
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"It does empower the court both to act in its own right in the context of situations under consideration or investigation, and, more broadly, to support governments which are addressing environmental crimes which could include ecocide," Mehta said. "This is a huge and deeply valuable step."
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