ICC to prosecute land/environmental crimes
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has just stated that it would begin to focus on crimes linked to the illegal exploitation of natural resources, unlawful dispossession of land and environmental destruction. From a legal perspective, this would contribute greatly to achieving the global agenda on land (and environmental) governance.
ICC’s original mandate, under its 1998 Rome Statute, was to prosecute war crimes, genocide, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity. As a land rights activist, I have always believed that activities related to land grabbing, illegal exploitation of natural resources, environmental destruction and unlawful dispossession of land constitute either crimes of aggression or/and crimes against humanity. ICC's shift to land and environment-related crimes means that it can now hold corporate executives to account for any population displacement their firms cause as a result of dispossessions of land rights during and land grabbing.
I welcome ICC's new position because it surely would globally enhance the promotion of equal land rights for all, environmental protection and pro-poor development policies. However, I also know that the ICC already has a massive load of criticisms on its back. African governments have questioned the Court’s fairness in opening investigations in its original mandate—claiming that all investigations that it has formally opened have targeted African continent. As a world criminal court, ICC is expected to conduct investigations worldwide. Obviously, it has not done this. The criticism from Africa against ICC is truly a serious one.
Since, many of the land grabbing issues happen in either Africa and Asia, how ICC embarks on its new journey will either help or worsen its reputation. The situation will even be more tricky for ICC because most of the global players in land grabbing are multi-national corporations from Europe, North America and Australia. How ICC handles its land cases would surely affect how crimes related to land (and environment) are viewed around the world.
Gaiadoc Global Sustainability Action Plan Chair and coordinator
8 年Here in the UK we have developers abusing the system to steal rights to poor peoples homes, I am interested in sharing experiences on this with indigenous people and others facing these issues in their own national context, the theft of land rights/ enjoyment is a terrible thing and has deep impacts on sustainability, I can but imagine how it feels within a poverty suffering background. This is a very serious matter and I welcome this from the ICC.
Infrastructure Quantity Surveyor; FISU, CSCS, Oil and Gas
8 年Is this targeting Africa or beyond?
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State
8 年Dr, please communicate me on postdoc research fellow opportunities in any of these areas; health economics, development economics, economics of climate change, environmental studies, financial economics, quantitative economics and studies in interdisciplinary areas. Honestly, i am seriously searching for one.
Sustainable Development | Social Performance | Real Estate | Land Management.
8 年Tough. How do you define and describe a land/crime
Attaché d'Administration de l'Etat - Compte et avis personnels
8 年Very encouraging statement, that will enlarge the juridiction of the ICC !