Panama vice-president speaks on ecocide at UN General Assembly

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".

In a powerful speech, after stating that Panama is a country "with a vocation for the protection of natural resources" the Vice President launched a series of key questions to the forum: "How can we earn the trust of new generations while the planet where we live and our descendants will have to live is being decimated before their eyes? How many more lives must be lost? How many more natural disasters must occur?" Finally, he asked "When is ecocide going to stop?"

He then explicitly addressed “the large emitters of gasses, those who promote deforestation, and those who dump chemicals that pollute and kill” to remind them that "it is about the survival of the Earth and the species that inhabit it".

As José Gabriel Carrizo says a little further on, "the future depends on every decision we make now. To take the wrong course and then try to correct it is no longer viable".

Watch a highlight of the speech HERE.

Watch the full video of the intervention HERE.