OFFICIAL SIDE EVENT, 23rd Session of the Assembly of States Parties
to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court:
A Fifth Crime of Ecocide: Opening Considerations
In-person & live-streamed, Tues 3rd December 2024, 13:15 - 14:45 (CET)
Legal recognition of ‘ecocide’ continues to advance, with national crimes proposed around the world; an EU directive requiring member states to criminalise “conduct comparable to ecocide”; and increasing acknowledgement that severe environmental harm should stand among “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole”. Environmental crime plays a central and under-acknowledged role in both armed conflict and the climate crisis, affecting development, peace and security and human rights.
In the the context of the ICC’s Working Group on Amendments, on the 9th September 2024, Vanuatu, with co-sponsorship from Fiji and Samoa, tabled a proposal to include an independent crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute. This has now also been supported by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
While too soon for such an amendment to be explicitly considered at the ASP this year, this official side event will set out some useful considerations of which States Parties will appreciate being aware, as they begin to engage with this important subject in the coming months and beyond. Topics covered by the distinguished panellists will include: overall rationale and timing; human rights implications; relationship with parallel legal initiatives; civil society support; youth perspective from the global South; and definitional considerations.
Moderated by: Madam Nazhat Shameem Khan, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
Speakers:
H.E. Volker Türk - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Professor Philippe Sands KC - Lawyer, 11 King's Bench Walk; Professor of Laws, Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals, University College London.
Professor Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh - Associate Professor of Sustainability Law, Amsterdam Law School
Sandrine Dixson-Declève - Co-President, Club of Rome
Debbie Buyaki - Co-Lead, Youth for Ecocide Law
Professor Darryl Robinson - Queen's University Faculty of Law (Canada)
Hosted by: Republic of Vanuatu, Independent State of Samoa, Republic of Fiji, Democratic Republic of Congo
Language: English, with interpretation in Arabic, French, Spanish
In association with partners: Stop Ecocide International, Stop Ecocide Foundation, UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, Climate Counsel
