Annual Lecture of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
Abstract: In June 2021, an independent expert panel issued a draft amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which would introduce a fifth crime: ecocide. How might international criminal law play an effective role in combatting the climate, diversity and pollution crises? What are the advantages and limitations of the (international) criminal law framework to address environmental harms? Join Kate Mackintosh, Deputy co-chair of the drafting panel to hear how the proposal deals with these issues, and where the campaign to make ecocide an international crime stands today.
Bio: Kate Mackintosh is the inaugural Executive Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law. She has held multiple roles at the UN international criminal tribunals, worked in post-conflict human rights field operations in Bosnia and in Rwanda, and was for eight years legal adviser and then head of humanitarian affairs for international NGO Médecins sans Frontières. Most recently she was deputy co-chair of the Expert Drafting Panel on the legal definition of ecocide.