An expert panel of top international and environmental lawyers have begun working this month on a legal definition of “ecocide” with the goal of making mass ecological damage an enforceable international crime on par with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
“The time is right to harness the power of international criminal law to protect our global environment.”
—Philippe Sands QC, University College London
Assembled by the Stop Ecocide Foundation at the request of several Swedish parliamentarians, the initiative to criminalize the destruction of ecosystems at the global level has already garnered support from European countries as well as small island nations highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.
The drafting panel is co-chaired by Philippe Sands QC, a professor at University College London, and Justice Florence Mumba, a former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The November 20 launch date of the project coincided with the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, where the terms “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” were coined.
“The time is right,” Sands said recently at an event commemorating the Nuremberg trials, “to harness […]
Wow, that is good to read. Thank you.
We are all one race “The Human Race” and are all responsible for the protection of our one and only habitable planet we can live on as far as we can determine at least in this galaxy, which is the only one we can contemplate getting to and we must protect it to the best of our ability, working together.