Making mass destruction of nature a prosecutable, international crime | 6 March 2023
Helena Wasserman
Co-founder Investors for Climate | Climate Investor, Advisor & Solutionist
Hi everyone,
Two weeks ago I was on a call with the fantastic Jojo Mehta, the co-founder of Stop Ecocide. Stop Ecocide was started by the late pioneer, lawyer, advocate and author Polly Higgings in 2017 to make ecocide an international crime. Jojo who now heads the organisation made me realise that if we are able to turn an ecocide into a prosecutable, international crime against peace through the UN’s international criminal court (like we do with a genocide) - the very controversial train derailment in Palestine (Ohio) which has been making headlines would have been dealt with very differently.?
Find out why making an ecocide a punishable crime would make a difference and find out how we can make this happen. If you want to learn more, a lot of the ressources from this article come from the brilliant Stop Ecocide website.?
We got this. ??
Helena
What is an ecocide?
An ecocide is the destruction of the natural environment by deliberate and negligent human action. For the purpose of this Statute, “ecocide” means 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 (Stop Ecocide Website).
Why make environmental disasters a crime against humanity?
Because that is the only way to make sure people follow the law. For example, in Singapore if you steal you can go to prison for up to 3 years, no wonder Singapore is one of the safest places in the world. Currently,? people aren’t punished for harming the environment.
How would the controversial accident in the train derailment in Ohio be treated differently?
A month ago a train derailment in Ohio carrying highly toxic chemicals poisoned a small town. Residents have reported more than 43’000 dead fish. Residents also reported nausea, headaches and burning eyes. The US government environmental agency the EPA has been slow at testing the site and the company responsible for the derailment (Norfolk Southern) hasn’t been fined nor its management prosecuted. When the derailment happened, Norfolk Southern made a misguided decision to detonate more than 1 million pounds of highly flammable vinyl chloride. It did this without any community input or discussion of health risks. If an ecocide was punishable by law the people responsible for this would be imprisoned and fined and as a result these types of accidents simply wouldn’t happen anymore.
How do we make ecocide an international crime?
Right now, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) lists four crimes:
The Statute can be amended to add a fifth crime: ecocide
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Unlike suing and fining corporations, making ecocide a crime creates an arrestable offence. It makes those individuals who are responsible for acts or decisions that lead to severe environmental harm liable to criminal prosecution (Learn more on the Stop Ecocide Website).
How do we make ecocide an international crime?
The ICC has 123 states as members called state parties. Any state which has officially agreed to the Rome Statute of the ICC may propose an amendment.? Once an amendment is proposed we would need 2/3 (therefore 82 out of 123) majority of States Parties to vote “yes.” The good news is that the ICC Assembly works on a one-state, one-vote basis.? This means that each state independently of its size holds the same power.?
What you can do
As you know this newsletter is here to offer solutions so here is what you can do.
All this and more can be done on the Stop Ecocide website.
3 good climate news of the week
??Indonesia Shows It’s Possible to Tame Rainforest Destruction (The Wall Street Journal)
?? Skilled workers from India encouraged to fill gap in Germany’s solar industry (Clean Energy Wire)
??Nokia's new G22 phone offers repairability as key feature (Trendwatching)?
The most thought provoking article of the week
??This Road Could Save the Planet—and Carve Up Alaskan Wilderness (Bloomberg)
One quote to keep you decarbonising hard ??
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."??
— Winston Churchill
If you enjoyed this week's Sustainability Shot newsletter, please forward it to someone who will find it informative. Thank you for spending time reading on this important topic.
President | Chamber of Commerce and Industry Brazil Kazakhstan - KazCham Global Network - Lawyer - Business Administrator
1 年Indeed It's a good discussion, the big issue now is jurisdiction and international agreements! Thank you for sharing ??