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Belgium’s ecocide law has today come into force as part of the country’s new penal code ( Article 94, Book II ), marking the final step in a legislative process that has been several years in the making.

The Croatian Government has announced plans, through a new Article (214a), to introduce a crime of ecocide - targeting the most severe forms of environmental destruction - into the country’s Criminal Code.

Speaking at a parliamentary press conference, representatives Fabio Porta and Debora Serracchiani of the Democratic Party called for the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to be amended with a new crime of ecocide.

Two of Germany's main political parties, the Left Party (Die Linke) and the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), have called for Germany to go further than the federal government's May 2026 draft reform of environmental criminal law, which implements the EU’s revised Environmental Crime Directive (ECD), by introducing an explicit and standalone domestic crime of ecocide.

Argentina took a significant step towards criminalising ecocide and other serious environmental crimes when the Senate's Justice and Criminal Affairs Committee and Environment and Sustainable Development Committee approved a Bill that would, if passed by the full Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, establish a dedicated chapter on environmental crimes, including ecocide, within the Argentine Penal Code for the first time.

The Santiago Declaration, signed at the Fifth Meeting of the Alliance of Environmental Law Clinics of Latin America and the Caribbean, acknowledges the progress made toward the criminalisation of ecocide and calls on states to build on this progress.

At its 2026 party congress, Finland's Social Democratic Party (SDP) has adopted the criminalisation of ecocide as party policy.

A newly released report backed by the Lebanese government documents destruction to forests, agricultural lands, marine ecosystems, water resources and atmospheric quality resulting from military activity in 2023 and 2024.

Mauritius has become the latest country to introduce a domestic crime of ecocide.

Calls have been made in Ghana’s Parliament for legislation to criminalise ecocide, amid growing concern over the environmental devastation caused by illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.

Iran’s Vice President and head of the country’s Department of Environment, Shina Ansari, has described strikes on oil storage facilities in Tehran as a “clear manifestation of ecocide”.

Lawmakers in the Philippines have proposed new legislation that would criminalise ecocide, marking a significant step toward stronger protection for the country’s ecosystems and communities.

The Scottish Parliament has voted to advance the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, placing Scotland on track to become the first UK nation to criminalise severe environmental destruction.

In a joint official statement, Lebanon's Ministries of Agriculture and Environment have condemned Israeli military aircraft spraying chemical substances over southern Lebanese regions as “ecocide”.

In a far-reaching package of reforms presented to President John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s Constitution Review Committee has proposed establishing a domestic crime of ecocide, stating:

At the United Nations Environment Assembly, the Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC) signalled firm support for recognising ecocide as an international crime.

Senator Cédric Ngindu Biduaya of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has formally lodged a bill in the national Parliament to establish ecocide as a domestic criminal offence, marking a decisive step towards strengthening legal protection for ecosystems across the country and the Congo Basin.

The German Federal Ministry of Justice has published a draft reform of its environmental criminal law, making an early move to translate the EU’s Environmental Crime Directive into national law.

A joint statement adopted at the 21st Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF-21) has called for ecocide to be recognised as a crime at national and international levels.

On December 5, a Private Member’s Bill proposing the criminalisation of ecocide was formally introduced in the Indian Parliament.

In a landmark step for the International Criminal Court, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has issued a comprehensive policy devoted entirely to environmental damage, signalling a marked shift in how international justice will engage with ecological harm.

The Council of Europe has opened for signature its new Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law , a landmark instrument enabling states to prosecute intentional conduct resulting in environmental disasters “tantamount to ecocide” .

At the opening ceremony of COP30 in Belém, Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reaffirmed his country’s support for the formal proposal by Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa to amend the Rome Statute and recognise ecocide as a standalone international crime.

Ecocide law was raised three times during the UN Security Council's session on environmental impact of armed conflict and climate-driven security risks, demonstrating growing diplomatic attention to establishing mass environmental destruction as an international crime.

The 2025 Global Youth Statement representing thousands of young people from over 100 countries has called for the adoption of ecocide laws to hold corporations and states accountable for environmental destruction.

The NGO Forum held ahead of the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has adopted a civil-society resolution urging the Commission to support recognition of ecocide.

Representatives from all Sweden’s non-government parties have submitted private member’s bills calling for ecocide to become an international crime.

At its World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, the IUCN — the world's largest environmental network — has voted to adopt Motion 061, "Recognising the crime of ecocide to protect nature."

A coalition of Ghanaian civil society organisations has issued an urgent call to President John Dramani Mahama to take immediate action against what they describe as an ongoing "ecocide" driven by illegal gold mining (galamsey).

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has publicly confirmed government support for establishing ecocide as the fifth core crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Lima Bar Association has placed the legal recognition of ecocide at the centre of its highest civic distinction, awarding the Civic Medal of Law to Jojo Mehta and Rodrigo Lledó Vásquez of Stop Ecocide International.

In a landmark address to the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo of the DRC reaffirmed his country’s formal support for recognising ecocide as a crime under the Rome Statute.

Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife has launched a formal inquiry in response to a petition by environmental defender Emmanuel Nkosilathi Moyo calling for the country to criminalise ecocide.

In a landmark advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice has clarified that states have binding legal obligations to protect the climate system and the environment, prevent harm, cooperate across borders, and provide reparations.

At AMCEN 20, the Republic of Congo and the Republic of Burundi formally declared their support for recognising ecocide as a crime.

African environment ministers have formally agreed to include ecocide in the continent’s environmental priorities for the 2025–2027 biennium — the first time ecocide has been recognised as a strategic continental priority by a UN forum.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has published its Advisory Opinion on the climate emergency and human rights, affirming that preventing irreversible harm to the environment and climate constitutes a jus cogens norm.

Argentina advanced further toward criminalising the gravest forms of environmental destruction, with Senator Edith Terenzi presenting a comprehensive ecocide bill to the Senate — the third legislative initiative currently under consideration.

A cross-party declaration from the 73rd meeting of COSAC has for the first time acknowledged ecocide as a potential addition to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Sardinian councillor Francesco Cozzolino has introduced a comprehensive bill in the Regional Council of Sardinia titled Norms for the Prevention and Repression of Ecocide.

On World Environment Day, Dominican Congresswoman Llaniris Espinal introduced a bill to criminalise ecocide, carrying penalties of up to 20 years in prison, mandatory environmental restoration, and financial sanctions.

Sweden’s biggest political party, the Social Democrats, has officially decided to push for an international ecocide law.

Scotland is poised to become the first UK nation to criminalise ecocide under a new Member’s Bill published in Holyrood, introduced by MSP Monica Lennon.

The Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine to the Kingdom of the Netherlands has formally described the environmental destruction in Gaza as ecocide — the first state-level actor to explicitly use the term in relation to Gaza.

Assembly Member Teremuura Kohumoetini-Rurua introduced a bill in the Assembly of French Polynesia, with the support of 20 colleagues, that aims to criminalise ecocide.

The Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Congress of Peru has published a unified bill to criminalise ecocide, consolidating three earlier proposals into a single legislative instrument.

The Council of Europe has adopted a landmark treaty which criminalises a wide range of environmental offences and enables states to prosecute intentional conduct resulting in environmental disasters 'tantamount to ecocide'.

A new legal opinion by Dr Stephan Sina, commissioned by Stop Ecocide Deutschland , sets out how Germany could incorporate the EU’s revised Environmental Crime Directive into national law — focusing on serious environmental harm comparable to ecocide.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) — Africa’s largest trade union federation, representing over six million workers — has publicly called for the recognition of ecocide as an international crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This clear position aligns the NLC with growing global momentum to criminalise the most serious environmental harms — momentum now driven in part by African leadership. In September 2024, Vanuatu, Samoa, and Fiji formally submitted a proposal to amend the Rome Statute to include ecocide; the Democratic Republic of Congo subsequently became the first African nation to support the amendment.

In a historic move, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the deliberative body of Europe’s foremost human rights organisation, has adopted a resolution endorsing the Draft Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law . If adopted and ratified by member states, the Convention would become the first legally binding international treaty to criminalise severe and large-scale environmental destruction — “conduct that many term ecocide.”

On 11 April 2025, draft legislation aimed at creating a general offence for causing serious environmental damage was tabled in the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region by MP Zakia Khattabi , former Federal Minister of the Environment and member of the French-speaking Ecolo Party.

On April 1st, 2025, MP Margarita Stolbizer presented a comprehensive bill dedicated to environmental crimes, which includes a Chapter on the crime of ecocide, using the definition developed by the Independent Expert Panel convened in 2021 by the Stop Ecocide Foundation.

Turkiye’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has supported a citizen-led petition to criminalise ecocide nationally. The petition was presented to parliament on 28 November 2023, after accumulating close to 29,000 wet signatures.

The German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) has included a commitment in its 2025 Election Programme(p.55) to the consistent implementation of the recently revised EU Environmental Crime Directive(ECD) in Germany, as well as to the prevention of the most severe environmental crimes (ecocide) through an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

On Wednesday, February 12, the Ecocide Law Advisory(ELA) was launched, a joint initiative between the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe and Climate Counsel to provide expert legal advice, training, and support on the drafting and implementation of ecocide laws.

On November 15-16, 2024, the General Assembly of the United Nations Association of Germany (UNA-Germany, DGVN)—the association’s highest decision-making body—adopted a motion supporting the recognition of ecocide as an international crime at the International Criminal Court.

On November 27th, the Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved a motion to criminalise ecocide, incorporating key elements of the 2021 IEP consensus legal definition. This significant step toward adding ecocide to the Penal Code now awaits plenary approval by Congress and presidential promulgation to become law.

A bill to criminalise ecocide has been lodged in the Scottish Parliament Introduced by Monica Lennon MSP and requiring the endorsement of at least 18 MSPs to proceed, the bill aims to prevent and criminalise the most severe forms of environmental harm. If passed, Scotland would become the first country in the UK to establish a domestic crime of ecocide and emerge as a global leader in the rapidly growing field of ecocide law.

DRC becomes first African nation to formally endorse the creation of an international crime of ecocide, following September 2024 proposal from Pacific nations to add ecocide to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Republic of Azerbaijan has passed legislation to amend its national criminal code with a new crime of ecocide.

Azerbaijan's parliament, the Milli Majlis, has passed the first reading of a bill that would introduce the crime of ecocide into the country's Criminal Code. Proposed by President Ilham Aliyev, the bill seeks to impose custodial sentences of 10 to 15 years for those convicted of committing severe environmental damage.

NEW YORK, 09 SEPTEMBER 2024: The crime of ecocide was formally introduced for consideration by member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) —an event that represents a major step forward in the global effort to enshrine mass environmental destruction as a crime under international law.

The Global Commons Survey 2024 , conducted by Ipsos UK and commissioned by Earth4All and the Global Commons Alliance (GCA), found that 72% of people across G20 countries agree that the most severe forms of environmental harm—increasingly known as Ecocide —- should be a crime.

On Thursday, September 5, the Congress of the Republic of Peru convened a Technical Committee to review a proposal aimed at criminalising ecocide within the country’s national penal code. The new legal text consolidates three bills recently submitted to Congress, and incorporates the main elements of the consensus legal definition of ecocide , which was formulated by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021.

A new report by France’s international development financing agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), highlights the role that ecocide law would play in “ensuring the planet’s habitability”.

The People’s Pact for the Future, a set of recommendations created through extensive consultations with global civil society to guide the United Nations in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, has proposed that ecocide be criminalised as a standalone offence under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

On 1 July 2024, Italy’s Green and Left Alliance proposed a bill to criminalise "ecocide," based on the Independent Expert Panel’s 2021 definition. The bill must undergo parliamentary discussion, committee review, voting in both houses, and receive presidential approval to become law.

Two new ecocide bills have been introduced in Peru's parliament by members of the Perú Libre and Cambio Democrático parties, adding to a previous submission and signalling a concerted move towards amending the penal code to include ecocide, based on the Independent Expert Panel’s consensus definition formulated in 2021.

On 17 June, the governing board of the largest political party in Finland’s ruling coalition government, the National Coalition Party, officially expressed support for ecocide as an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), representing a global fellowship of 352 churches and 580 million Christians, has issued a powerful statement which calls on the world’s churches and governments to support ecocide legislation and emphasises the role of biodiversity in preserving human well-being and ensuring the planet's resilience to climate impacts.

At a press conference on 30th May, MPs from three of Canada’s federal political parties affirmed their support for making ecocide a crime at the International Criminal Court.

In a speech given at the "Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises" conference in Amsterdam, organised by the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reaffirmed his support for bringing the crime of ecocide within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the wide ranging speech, the High Commissioner called for environmental crimes to be considered on a par with the human impacts of other atrocities and for states to employ criminal law ’more expansively’ as a tool to align their environmental laws and policies with their human rights obligations.

On 15 May 2024, the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) voted on a total of six motions, from four political parties, that contain proposals to make ecocide prohibited under international law within the framework of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The vote in parliament was close - 153 MPs voting in line with the Foreign Affairs Committee’s recommendations (i.e. against the motions) and 150 voting in favour.

In a speech given on 27 May at the "Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises" conference in Amsterdam, organised by the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Deputy Prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, made a wide-ranging case for updating and adapting the existing international criminal law framework, including Rome Statute, to better protect the environment. Expanding on her theme of the Rome Statute being "a reflection of the legal imagination" of the time in which it was created, Khan remarked, "I wonder, if the Rome Statute was being drafted today, what would it look like? Would it include ecocide as a separate international crime?"

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has released a report providing an overview of the global state of ‘Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’ in 2023. Referencing that only a handful of states have criminalised ecocide to date, the Secretary-General highlights the “need to establish a crime of ecocide at the international level” (para 45).

Congressman Américo Gonza, a member of the Perú Libre party and Chair of the Peruvian parliamentary Justice Committee, has tabled a bill proposing the amendment of Peru’s penal code to include the crime of ecocide. The bill, which notes that the Independent Expert Panel’s consensus definition of ecocide is ‘widely accepted at the international level’, proposes a custodial sentence for the crime of between seven and twenty years.

On April 18, 2024, the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe adopted Resolution 2546 which contains recommendations aimed at addressing critical issues related to ocean health in the context of the climate crisis, including a call on member and non-member States of the Council of Europe to promote the codification of the term "ecocide" at national, regional and international levels.

In run-up to elections, Flemish and Walloon political parties have been surveyed on a host of issues. The survey, conducted by a coalition of Belgian environmental organisations, included a question about support for amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include a new crime of ecocide .

The European Council has formally adopted a new environmental crime directive , which includes provision to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’.

The city of Utrecht, represented by Alderman Linda Voortman , signed the Stop Ecocide NL Manifesto , which calls upon the Dutch government to support the recognition of ecocide as a crime at the international, European, and national levels.

The Joint Global Statement of Major Groups and Stakeholders (Joint Global Statement), presented at the Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6), stated that working 'towards the universal recognition of ecocide as an international crime' would serve as a 'powerful deterrent' against the most severe environmental harms.

In an open letter published by Aktuell Hallbarhet , and timed to coincide with the European Parliament voting through an updated environmental crime directive , six CEOs, including Jenny Rundbladh of pensions giant SPP , called for the establishment of an international crime of ecocide under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

On February 20, 2024, a group of Finnish Green MPs , including former Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo , submitted a formal written question to the government, inquiring about the administration's intentions to promote the establishment of a new standalone international crime of ecocide via the International Criminal Court.

Prominent members of the international legal community, politicians, academics, businesses and NGOs have responded to a public consultation held by the office of the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, calling for a new crime of ecocide to be introduced into the Rome Statute.

Launched at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi , the Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth charter, has been drafted by leading Islamic eco-theologians and practitioners from around the world. The charter creates a comprehensive Islamic framework on ecological and moral responsibility, urging collective action for the protection of our planet and states: “The enormity of the crime of ecocide – the extirpation of entire ecosystems, communities of species, including our own – can best be appreciated by considering the horrors of genocide – the extirpation of ethnicities and cultures. […] This kind of corruption in the Earth has yet to be recognised, litigated, and penalised in national and international legislation.”

The European Parliament has today voted through a new environmental crime directive , which includes provision to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’. The European Parliament, along with the Parliament’s rapporteur on the directive, Netherlands MEP Antonius Manders , have been at the centre of efforts to secure new EU legislation aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe environmental harms since it announced its support for the inclusion of “ecocide” in the new directive in March 2023. To complete its legislative journey, the new directive will be subject to a vote by the European Council, scheduled to take place March 2024.

Belgium’s Federal Parliament has today voted in favour of a new penal code for the country, which, for the first time in Europe, includes recognition of the crime of ecocide at both the national and international levels. Nationally, the new crime of ecocide, aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe cases of environmentaldegradation, such as extensive oil spills, will apply to individuals in the highest positions of decision-making power and to corporations.

A new report, ‘ The Environmental Compact for Ukraine ’, has been published by the country’s High-Level Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War . The report highlights the presence of the crime of “ecocide” in Ukraine’s penal code (Article 441), notes the recent increase in the incorporation of the crime into domestic legislation across the globe and makes special reference to the Independent Expert Panel’s 2021 definition of ecocide .

On Thursday 18 January, representations to the Catalan Parliament were heard from NGOs, community groups and experts on a bill to incorporate the crime of ecocide into the national Penal Code of Spain.

On December 10 2023, the Coalition for International Criminal Justice (CICJ) issued a statement calling upon the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish a Special Working Group on Ecocide.

The Global Tipping Points report 2023 was produced by The University of Exeter's Global Systems Centre and sees contributions from 200 authors and 25 institutions. The report names Ecocide Law as one of a series of ‘Positive Tipping Points’ in technology, economy and society which offer hope in the face collapsing systems in the natural world.

The ' Ecocide Bill ', introduced as a Private Members Bill by Baroness Rosie Boycott , aims to close an existing gap in UK criminal law which allows perpetrators of the most severe environmental harms to escape accountability.

The EU has agreed to enshrine in law a new offence that aims to punish the most serious crimes against the environment. The final text emerged following several months of negotiation (“trilogues”) between the European Council, Commission and Parliament considering, inter alia, the establishment of a “qualified offence” aimed at preventing and punishing the gravest environmental harms including, as the accompanying recitals specify, “cases comparable to ecocide”.

Monica Lennon MSP has lodged proposals for a Members’ Bill in the Scottish Parliament asking people to support an ecocide prevention law that could see big polluters jailed for between 10 and 20 years.

On November 8th, the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Deputies Chamber of the Brazilian Congress approved Bill No 2933/2023 which aims to criminalize the most serious cases of illegal or wanton destruction of the environment, known as “ecocide”. This Bill has been authored and submitted by the PSOL party and supported by a coalition or organisations including Ecoe Brasil, Climate Counsel, Observatório do Clima and Stop Ecocide International.

The Nordic Council has voted unanimously during its most recent session in Oslo, Norway to adopt a recommendation calling for ‘the Nordic governments to participate in relevant international discussions to criminalise serious crimes against the natural environment in both wartime and peacetime.’

On August 17, a new law, Law 21.595 was published in Chile. It modifies the Penal Code in terms of economic crimes and incorporates a new section on "Attacks against the environment", which includes several elements of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert Panel, convened by Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021.

Pope Francis has published “ Laudate Deum ”, an Apostolic Exhortation which is calling on governments to take responsibility on climate change and environmental damage . Following up from his 2015 “Laudato Sì”, Pope Francis highlights the inarguable human origins for the global climate emergency, and advocates for more international co-operation to control environmental damage. Pope Francis was also the first Head of State, in 2019, to publicly support the inclusion of ecocide as a crime under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (Greens and Left Alliance), supported by Stop Ecocidio Italia and Stop Ecocide International, has submitted a bill aimed at preventing and criminalising ecocide to the Italian Parliament. The proposed bill, which is directly based on the wording of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021, has been formally submitted to parliament, with debate and votes due to take place in the coming months.

In his opening speech of the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council , Volker Türk , United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed enthusiasm for inclusion of the international crime of “ecocide” in the Rome Statute of the UN-backed International Criminal Court as a potential measure to ensure accountability for environmental damage, saying: "An international crime of ecocide has been proposed for inclusion in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by a number of States and civil society groups. I welcome consideration of this and other measures to expand accountability for environmental damage, both at the national and international level.”

The Taskforce on Nature Markets, an initiative of Geneva-based non-profit Nature Finance working across public policy and the finance world to “align global finance with climate resilient, nature positive and equitable outcomes”, has issued its in-depth report Making Nature Markets Work. The report directly recommends establishing an criminal offence of ecocide in order to deter, prevent and hold accountable those engaging in illegal nature markets.

On 30 July, Deputy Karina Marlen Barrón Perales (PRI) proposed adding a new article to Mexico's Federal Penal Code which would impose 10 to 15 years in prison and a fine of 1,000 to 1,500 pesos per day on anyone who perpetrates "any unlawful or wanton act committed with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”.

The Catalan Parliament has initiated a procedure to bring before the National Congress of Deputies a bill to include the crime of ecocide in the Spanish Penal Code. From here, the proposal will continue its progress. There will be several months of hearings in which amendments can be introduced to the text, after which a final vote will take place at the Catalan Parliament.

On Thursday 20th July, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved the second reading of a bill outlining proposed reforms to the nation’s penal code. Among the new crimes listed for inclusion is Ecocide. Pending approval by Parliament later this year, the development sees Belgium set to become the twelfth country to add the crime to its statute books .

Member of Parliament Lammert van Raan of Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), officially launched a law proposal to criminalise ecocide in the Netherlands. The proposal is currently subject to four weeks of public consultation prior to being submitted for advisory opinion to the Council of State. For the bill to become law, it will then need to be approved by Parliament.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has called on parliaments of its participating States to enshrine the concept of ecocide in national and international law.

Once every five years, representatives from Green Parties, Indigenous communities, civil society, academia, charities and NGOs from all over the world come together at the Global Greens Congress to take stock of the current state of the world and establish key policy priorities for the coming years. Among this year’s selected strategies for endorsement (all of which can be read in the Korea Declaration ) was the growing global initiative to establish an international crime of ecocide.

At a UN Security Council open debate on the effects of climate change on peace and security, Austrian Ambassador Alexander Marschik raised the issue of widespread and longterm damage to the environment. He suggested that “the international community should consider making [such damage] a crime under international law — referred to as “ecocide”.

On World Ocean Day 2023, the celebrated oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle joined other world leaders, such as Pope Frances and Jane Goodall , in support of the recognition of “ecocide” as an international crime, as advocated by global NGO Stop Ecocide International .

The breach of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has displaced the Dnipro River, killed an unknown number of people and animals, and left many Ukrainians homeless. The immediate human consequences of the dam’s destruction have already been devastating and its ecological impacts, though still being assessed, have been repeatedly referred to as “ecocide” ¹ .

The Brazilian political party PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade) submitted a new Ecocide Bill to the Brazilian Congress. The proposed ecocide law seeks to criminalise “performing illegal or wanton acts with the knowledge that they generate a substantial probability of serious and widespread or long-term damage to the environment.”

On 9 May, the Spanish government officially answered to a written question submitted by Inés Sabanés Nadal, MP for Más País Verdes Equo, on whether the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge intended to support the proposal to recognise ecocide and autonomous crimes against the environment in the framework of the European Council.

On 15th April, the world premiere of the Ecocide Law Choir Suite took place at the Jyväskylä University in Finland to an audience of over 300 people. The concert comprised a suite of twelve songs by composers from USA, Great Britain, Scotland, Sweden, Sápmi (Sameland), Finland, Canada, Brazil and Denmark, all of whom have donated their contributions to the Choirs for Ecocide Law project .

On the 29th March, history was written on both sides of the Atlantic. In Brussels, the European Parliament unanimously proposed including “ ecocide ” into EU law while in New York, a UN resolution called for a legal Advisory Opinion on the obligations of states with respect to climate change.

Following a historic unanimous Legal Affairs Committee vote, the European Parliament has announced its support for the inclusion of “ecocide”-level crimes in the EU’s revised environmental crime directive.

The Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, is hopeful that the upcoming leadership summit of the Council of Europe will produce some positive developments on the matter of ecocide. Jakobsdóttir expressed her optimism in the Icelandic parliament during a discussion responding to a parliamentary inquiry on the matter of ecocide from MP Andrés Ingi Jónsson of the Pirate Party on 20 March 2023.

Following the direction of travel established in the 4 previous consultative committees, the last and most important of these in the context of this Directive, the legal affairs (JURI) committee, unanimously voted to include the most serious environmental crimes - widely known as “ecocide” - in its proposed text for the Directive which will be presented in the EU Parliament on 17th April.

In Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila, leaders of 6 Pacific ocean states made an ambitious collective call to phase out fossil fuels, support a rapid and just Pacific transition to renewable energy, and strengthen related legal obligations - including to “prevent Ecocide”.

The panel addressed legal mechanisms already available for prosecution of harm to the environment in wartime, their drawbacks and potential for use in the Ukraine context; but also discussed the usefulness for the future of putting in place an international crime of ecocide, something that Ukraine has a keen interest in, and has already strongly supported (see speeches by Ukrainian MPs at the Council of Europe debate in January).

A new policy “viewpoint” document Biodiversity as Systemic Risk: 10 Game-Changers for Board Directors and Stewardship Teams has been released by the International Corporate Governance Network ( ICGN ), highlighting the criminalisation of ecocide as an essential emerging framework.

After a year and a half of research and drafting, the prestigious European Law Institute (ELI) has published its Report on Ecocide: Model Rules for an EU Directive and a Council Decision . The model law draws inspiration from the consensus international definition released by the Independent Expert Panel (June 2021, convened by our Foundation) while making adjustments for the European Union context and certain legal considerations relevant to EU law.

The EU Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (“LIBE”) has just voted in support (NB final text still pending publication) of including a crime of ecocide into the Directive on protection of the environment through criminal law , currently under revision.

Strasbourg the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) votes overwhelmingly to adopt resolution 2477 and recommendation 2246 , both calling for recognition of ecocide, based on a recently issued report from its Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development on the Environmental impact of armed conflicts .

In a press release issued during COP15, Triodos Bank has called for ambitious biodiversity targets and for the introduction of a new crime of ecocide at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Support keeps on growing for the recognition of ecocide within the EU Directive on protection of the environment through criminal law . Two more EU committees, the Petitions Committee (“PETI”) and the Development Committee (“DEVE”) voted this week on proposals for the directive which is currently under revision, both backed inclusion of a crime of ecocide.

The Council of Europe has announced that its Committee of Ministers yesterday adopted the Terms of Reference of the Committee of Experts on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (PC-ENV) , which has been established to draft a new Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law. The following explanatory paragraphs is taken from the CoE release: “The new Council of Europe Convention will provide a common global framework, laying down a general basis of pan-European criminal law, in line with the transboundary nature of the environmental challenge that needs to be met.

At the G20 summit in Indonesia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine set out in a speech to world leaders a 10-point Peace Formula aimed at restoring just and long-lasting peace for Ukraine. Covering nuclear safety, food and energy security, ceasing of hostilities and the upholding of the UN Charter, the formula also specifically includes a call for immediate protection of the environment. In Zelenskyy’s words: “ The eighth challenge is ecocide, the need for immediate protection of environment. [....] ”

In a letter sent to the Argentinean Association of Professors of Criminal Law (AAPDDP) and disseminated in the media , Pope Francis makes an express reference to the need to incorporate "ecocide" as a fifth category of crimes against peace, i.e. to criminalise, at the international level, those conducts that involve the loss, damage or destruction of flora and fauna.

In its statement to COP27 , the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), an investor-led organisation with ‘assets under management’ of $70 trillion, has, for the second year running, called on governments to criminalise ecocide.

As part of the first major revision of its criminal code in over a century the Belgian government has proposed the inclusion of a crime of ecocide into domestic law, a move championed by the Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal, Zakia Khattabi.

The Stop Ecocide Foundation EU Crime Directive Position Paper , submitted to EU agencies, has just been vindicated by the vote of the EU’s environment (ENVI) committee on its proposals vis-a-vis the revision of the EU Directive . The committee has proposed inclusion of a standalone article in the Directive setting out an offence of ecocide to cover “severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September, the Vice President of the Republic of Panama, José Gabriel Carrizo , argued that "the time has come for the world to have an international body to hold accountable all those who cause damage to the planet".

A growing number of businesses are seeing the potential benefits of the legal guardrail that an international ecocide law will afford and are joining calls to criminalise those acts which threaten the most serious environmental damage.

Ecocide law has been acknowledged as a key driver for business action towards net zero in a high level report delivered at the United Nations during UN General Assembly high-level week in New York.

Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, re-affirmed the UK Labour Party’s support for a new international law of ecocide in his speech to the Labour Party Conference on 27 September.

President Nikenike Vurobaravu of Vanuatu has called for states to support including a crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), telling the UN General Assembly “acting with knowledge of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment can no longer be tolerated”.

As part of the Global Climate Strike, FFFNYC made the recognition of ecocide as an international crime one of their 4 key demands .

The Spanish Parliament has just taken the final step to approve the law that recognises the Mar Menor and its basin as having rights , among them the right to exist and the right to recover its natural balance. The law was approved in the Senate by an overwhelming majority.

A statement from the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe calls for support for ecocide law as a new and strengthened form of accountability.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) celebrated 20 years since it opened its doors in July 2002. A one-day conference was held in The Hague to mark the occasion, and the last session of the day, focusing on the future of the court, prominently featured discussion of ecocide as a possible fifth Rome Statute crime.

Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement last month in support of a crime of ecocide, the Belgian Ecolo-Groen parties have been quick to seize the moment to propose establishing the crime in Belgium and internationally.

An open letter from four well-known young climate activists - Greta Thunberg (Sweden), Luisa Neubauer (Germany), Anuna de Wever and Adélaïde Charlier (both from Belgium) - has called for EU member states to “advocate to make ecocide an international crime at the International Criminal Court”.

In 2020 when the COP26 conference would have been running, over 330 youth delegates representing over 140 countries gathered online at Mock COP26 and published their declaration.

President Emmanuel Macron of France met the 150 randomly selected members of the citizens assembly on climate, the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (CCC) this morning in the gardens of the Elysée Palace in Paris to give his response to the assembly’s proposals to tackle climate change.

Following the “gilets jaunes” crisis last year, President Macron convened a “citizen’s climate assembly” – the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (CCC) of 150 randomly selected French citizens – and gave them a mandate to discuss and propose policies for addressing the climate crisis.

On 3rd December 2019 in The Hague, at the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s annual Assembly of States Parties, the Pacific island state of Vanuatu made a bold statement - that the Assembly should consider seriously expanding the court's remit to include a crime of ecocide.

Addressing the International Association of Penal Law in the Vatican on 15th November 2019, Pope Francis proposed that “sins against ecology” be added to the teachings of the Catholic Church and went a step further, saying “ecocide” should be a fifth category of crimes against peace at the international level.

Stop Ecocide proposes “concrete solution” to climate & ecological emergency at the International Rebellion

The Republic of Maldives, in its official statement to the Assembly of States Parties in The Hague has asserted its support for a fifth international crime of ecocide.