Thursday, April 20, at 18:00 CEST

Location: University of Amsterdam

In light of the exacerbating climate crisis, the campaign to criminalise ecocide, or grave and large-scale destruction of the environment, has gained momentum in recent years. Spearheaded by the Stop Ecocide International initiative, activists, politicians, and international lawyers have been advocating for making ecocide the fifth core crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In 2021, an Independent Expert Panel put forward a proposal for a legal definition of ecocide to serve as a basis for discussion for a potential amendment to the Rome Statute. At the same time, efforts are underway to criminalise ecocide in other fora, for example at the EU and at the national level. To shed a light at the debate around the criminalisation of ecocide, ASA International Law is happy to welcome Babs Verhoeve, co-director and legal counsel of Stop Ecocide NL, and Judith Alkema, an environmental activist and independent researcher on environmental law and policy, who is currently working with the Party for the Animals (PvdD) on drafting an initiative law for a crime of ecocide under the Dutch Penal Code.

The organization of this event is being led by youth members of Stop Ecocide Netherlands!

Please join us for an exciting panel debate on Thursday, April 20th at 18:00h.

The debate is expected to last about 90 minutes, with at least 30 minutes allocated for questions from the audience.