NOVEMBER 2024 - PERU

On November 27th, the Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved a motion to criminalise ecocide, incorporating key elements of the 2021 IEP consensus legal definition. This significant step toward adding ecocide to the Penal Code now awaits plenary approval by Congress and presidential promulgation to become law.

OCTOBER 2024 - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

DRC became first African nation to formally endorse the creation of an international crime of ecocide, following September 2024 proposal from Pacific nations to add ecocide to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

OCTOBER 2024 - AZERBAIJAN

Azerbaijan's parliament, the Milli Majlis, has passed the first reading of a bill that would introduce the crime of ecocide into the country's Criminal Code. Proposed by President Ilham Aliyev, the bill seeks to impose custodial sentences of 10 to 15 years for those convicted of committing severe environmental damage.

SEPTEMBER 2024 - VANUATU, FIJI & SAMOA

The crime of ecocide was formally introduced for consideration by member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa —an event that represents a major step forward in the global effort to enshrine mass environmental destruction as a crime under international law.

SEPTEMBER 2024 - PERU

Peru has taken a significant step toward criminalising ecocide, as a national congressional Technical Committee successfully consolidated three separate proposed ecocide bills into a unified legislative text.

JULY 2024 - FRANCE

A new report by France’s international development financing agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), highlights the role that ecocide law would play in “ensuring the planet’s habitability”.

JUNE 2024 - PERU

Two new ecocide bills have been introduced in Peru's parliament by members of the Perú Libre and Cambio Democrático parties, adding to a previous submission and signalling a concerted move towards amending the penal code to include ecocide, based on the Independent Expert Panel’s consensus definition formulated in 2021.

JULY 2024 - ITALY

On 1 July 2024, Italy’s Green and Left Alliance proposed a bill to criminalise "ecocide," based on the Independent Expert Panel’s 2021 definition. The bill must undergo parliamentary discussion, committee review, voting in both houses, and receive presidential approval to become law.

June 2024 - FINLAND

On 17 June, the governing board of the largest political party in Finland’s ruling coalition government, the National Coalition Party, officially expressed support for ecocide as an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

MAY 2024 - PERU

On 16 May 2024, opposition congressman Américo Gonza introduced a bill to Peru’s parliament proposing to amend the country’s penal code to criminalise ecocide on the national level. The proposed amendment text closely emulates the consensus definition of ecocide produced by Stop Ecocide Foundation’s Independent Expert Panel.

MAY 2024 - SWEDEN

The Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) voted on a total of six motions, from four political parties, that contain proposals to make ecocide prohibited under international law within the framework of the International Criminal Court.

The vote in parliament was close - 153 MPs voting in line with the Foreign Affairs Committee’s recommendations (i.e. against the motions) and 150 voting in favour.

March 2024 - EUROPEAN COUNCIL

The European Council formally adopted a new environmental crime directive, which includes provision to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’. This is the latest and final vote on the new Directive and follows approval by the European Parliament in February and a landmark political agreement between the European Council, Commission and Parliament in November 2023.

Member states will now have a 24 month period, via the so-called ‘transposition’ process, in which to align national legislation with the newly adopted directive. 

March 2024 - FINLAND

On February 20, 2024, a group of Finnish Green MPs, including former Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo, submitted a formal written question to the government, inquiring about the administration's intentions to promote the establishment of a new standalone international crime of ecocide via the International Criminal Court.

February 2024 - BELGIUM

Belgium’s Federal Parliament voted in favour of a new penal code for the country, which, for the first time in Europe, includes recognition of the crime of ecocide at both the national and international levels. Nationally, the new crime of ecocide, aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe cases of environmentaldegradation, such as extensive oil spills, will apply to individuals in the highest positions of decision-making power and to corporations.

December 2023 - SAMOA, VANUATU, ROMANIA, ESTONIA & UKRAINE

Two official side events focusing on ecocide were held at the International Criminal Court’s 22nd Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute held at the UN in New York. Vanuatu & Samoa joined forces with the Stop Ecocide Foundation for an event on 11th Dec focusing on victims of ecocide while Estonia & Romania joined Ukraine on 12th Dec to highlight the need to address ecocide in armed conflict.

December 2023 - UNITED KINGDOM

A Private Members Bill dubbed the 'Ecocide Bill', introduced by Baroness Rosie Boycott, aims to close an existing gap in UK criminal law which allows perpetrators of the most severe environmental harms to escape accountability. 

November 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION

The EU has agreed to enshrine in law a new offence that aims to punish the most serious crimes against the environment. The final text emerged following several months of negotiation (“trilogues”) between the European Council, Commission and Parliament considering, inter alia, the establishment of a “qualified offence” aimed at preventing and punishing the gravest environmental harms including, as the accompanying recitals specify, “cases comparable to ecocide”. 

November 2023 - BRAZIL

The Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Deputies Chamber of the Brazilian Congress approved Bill No 2933/2023 which aims to criminalize the most serious cases of illegal or wanton destruction of the environment, known as “ecocide”. This Bill has been authored and submitted by the PSOL party and supported by a coalition or organisations including Ecoe Brasil, Climate Counsel, Observatório do Clima and Stop Ecocide International.

November 2023 - SCOTLAND

Monica Lennon MSP lodged proposals for a Members’ Bill in the Scottish Parliament asking people to support an ecocide prevention law that could see big polluters jailed for between 10 and 20 years.  

November 2023 - NORDIC COUNCIL

The Nordic Council voted unanimously in a session in Oslo, Norway to adopt a recommendation calling for ‘the Nordic governments to participate in relevant international discussions to criminalise serious crimes against the natural environment in both wartime and peacetime.’

October 2023 - CHILE

On August 17, a new law,  Law 21.595 was published in Chile.  It modifies the Penal Code in terms of economic crimes and incorporates a new section on "Attacks against the environment", which includes several elements of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert  Panel, convened by Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021. 

September 2023 - ITALY

Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (Greens and Left Alliance), supported by Stop Ecocidio Italia and Stop Ecocide International, has submitted a bill aimed at preventing and criminalising ecocide to the Italian Parliament.    

The proposed bill, which is directly based on the wording of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021, has been formally submitted to parliament, with debate and votes due to take place in the coming months. 

July 2023 - MEXICO

Deputy Karina Marlen Barrón Perales (PRI) proposed adding a new article to Mexico's Federal Penal Code punishing anyone who perpetrates "any unlawful or wanton act committed with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”.

July 2023 - SPAIN/CATALUNYA

The Catalan Parliament has initiated a procedure to bring before the National Congress of Deputies a bill to include the crime of ecocide in the Spanish Penal Code. From here, the proposal will continue its progress. There will be several months of hearings in which amendments can be introduced to the text, after which a final vote will take place at the Catalan Parliament.

July 2023 - NETHERLANDS

Member of Parliament Lammert van Raan of Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), officially launched a law proposal to criminalise ecocide in the Netherlands.

The proposal is currently subject to four weeks of public consultation prior to being submitted for advisory opinion to the Council of State. For the bill to become law, it will then need to be approved by Parliament.

July 2023 - BELGIUM

The Belgian Council of Ministers approved the second reading of a bill outlining proposed reforms to the nation’s penal code. Among the new crimes listed for inclusion is Ecocide. Pending approval by Parliament later this year, the development sees Belgium set to become the twelfth country to add the crime to its statute books.

June 2023 - BRAZIL

The Brazilian political party PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade) submitted a new Ecocide Bill to the Brazilian Congress. The proposed ecocide law seeks to criminalise “performing illegal or wanton acts with the knowledge that they generate a substantial probability of serious and widespread or long-term damage to the environment.”

June 2023 - AUSTRIA

At a UN Security Council open debate on the effects of climate change on peace and security, the Austrian Ambassador suggested that ‘the international community should consider making widespread long-term damage to the environment a crime under international law — referred to as “ecocide”. ‘

May 2023 - SPAIN

On 9 May 2023, the Spanish government officially answered to a written question submitted by Inés Sabanés Nadal, MP for Más País Verdes Equo, on whether the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge intended to support the proposal to recognise ecocide and autonomous crimes against the environment in the framework of the European Council.

March 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION

Via announcement at a monthly plenary session, the European Parliament officially declared its support of the inclusion of ecocide-level crimes into the European Union’s revised Directive on protection of the environment through criminal law. 

March 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION

Following the direction of travel established in the 4 previous consultative committees, the last and most important of these in the context of this Directive, the legal affairs (JURI) committee, unanimously voted to include the most serious environmental crimes - widely known as “ecocide” - in its proposed text for the Directive which will be presented in the EU Parliament on 17th April.

March 2023 - 6 PACIFIC NATIONS

Governments of Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Solomon Islands collective call [link PDF] to phase out fossil fuels, support a rapid and just Pacific transition to renewable energy, and strengthen related legal obligations - including to “prevent Ecocide”.

March 2023 - UKRAINE

United for Justice state-hosted conference in Lviv discusses ecocide law in high-level panel ”Prosecuting Environmental War Crimes” featuring Environment Minister, following severe environmental damage suffered in Ukraine as a result of Russian invasion. 

January 2023 - COUNCIL OF EUROPE (46 STATES)

Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe adopts resolution and recommendation calling for recognition of ecocide, based on report from its Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development on the Environmental impact of armed conflicts. 

December 2022 - BELGIUM

General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib reiterates Belgium’s “willingness to engage in consideration of the introduction of a crime known as ‘ecocide’ into the Rome Statute system.”

December 2022 - AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Hon. Nanaia Mahuta made a strong statement in support of “future discussions around the concept of ecocide as an international crime to address environmental destruction at a global level.”

December 2022 - FINLAND

General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto welcomes “every effort to use international criminal justice to respond” to the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, and notes the Assembly provides a context to “continue discussions on the ecocide initiative.”

November 2022 - UKRAINE

At the G20 summit in Indonesia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine set out in a speech to world leaders a 10-point Peace Formula aimed at restoring just and long-lasting peace for Ukraine.  Covering nuclear safety, food and security, ceasing of hostilities and the upholding of the UN Charter, point 8 of the plan addresses the challenge of “countering ecocide”.

September 2022 - PANAMA

UN General Assembly: 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. […] When is ecocide going to stop?"

September 2022 - VANUATU

UN General Assembly: President Vurobaravu urges statesto support including a crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), telling the Assembly that “acting with knowledge of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment can no longer be tolerated”.

August 2022 - AUSTRALIA

Senator David Shoebridge (Australian Greens), in his first speech to the Australian Senate Chamber on 2nd August, declares he believes it is “time to enact a new criminal offence of ecocide. Ecocide is the mass, widespread damage and destruction of ecosystems in nature.”

June 2022 - KENYA

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Forests, Mr Keriako Tobiko, revealed a landmark legislation proposal, stating that said proposal "contains critical principles”, which include the “recognition of the right to nature and, most importantly, creation of the crime of 'ecocide’”.

May 2022 - CYPRUS

Issue of criminalising ecocide raised during parliamentary speech given by Member of the House of Representatives, Ms. Alexandra Attalides, from Movement of Ecologists-Citizens Cooperation

April 2022 - DENMARK

Danish parliament discusses ecocide following a question submitted to the Foreign Minister and resolves (see 15.22: A. Lind), by large majority, to follow ecocide conversation internationally.

March 2022 - ICELAND

Ecocide parliamentary resolution submitted to Parliament calling for support for international crime of ecocide as well as national ecocide legislation. With cross party support from Pirate Party, Liberal reformation, Social Democrats and Left Green.

February 2022 - EUROPEAN UNION

European Parliament Report on Human Rights & Democracy recommends EU member states to support criminalising ecocide at the ICC & also examine relevance to EU law.

December 2021 - SAMOA

Samoa supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement from the Prime Minister.

December 2021 - BANGLADESH

Bangladesh supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement.

December 2021 - VANUATU

Vanuatu continues its long-standing support of the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement.

December 2021 - FINLAND

Finland’s foreign minister supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC in his official statement to the Assembly of States Parties

December 2021 - BELGIUM

Belgium supports raising awareness of ecocide internationally in its official statement to the International Criminal Court’s Assembly and intervenes (see 1h26m) in official ICC side event.

November 2021 - IRELAND

Jennifer Whitmore TD asks a parliamentary question: will the Irish government support the recognition of ecocide as an international crime?

November 2021 - West Papua

The provisional government of West Papua launches its Green State Vision in Glasgow during COP26, explicitly including the criminalisation of ecocide.

November 2021 - UK

Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, David Lammy MP publicly announces during COP26, the commitment of the Labour Party to support discussions around an international crime of ecocide.

November 2021 - MEXICO

Senator Raúl Paz Alonzo has asked the Mexican Government to recognise ecocide as the fifth Crime against World Peace and Security.

November 2021 - BELGIUM

Belgium’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee passes resolution;
“calling on the Belgian government to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and in the Belgian Penal Code". 

October 2021 - SPAIN

A Proposal was registered at the Ecological Transition Committee of the Congress asking the government to support the creation of Ecocide crime. (P. 50)

September 2021 - UK

Lords debate of revised amendment to UK Environment Bill by Baroness Bennett. Environmental bill - Amendment 126: ‘ecocide’, that Her Majesty’s Government support the negotiation of an amendment to the Statute of the International Criminal Court to establish a crime of ecocide.

September 2021 - CHILE

Subcommittee on the General Framework for Human, Environmental & Natural Rights of the Constitutional Convention discusses ecocide, resulting in a favourable vote for an annex (first draft HERE ) to be added to the new Chilean constitution.

August 2021 - FRANCE

Climate & Resilience Act passed, including up to 10 year sentences for "ecocide" offences (Art 231-3) and a requirement for gov't to report on progress towards international crime of ecocide (Art 296)

July 2021 - CHILE

Parliamentary resolution passed calling on the government to pursue proposing an ecocide amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

June 2021 - SCOTLAND

Parliamentary motion calling on the government to welcome the work of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide and welcome the emergence of broad international consensus for the recognition of ecocide as a crime.

June 2021 - UK

Environment Bill - Two Amendments
287: To support the negotiation of an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to establish a crime of ecocide.
293D : To support a UK crime of ecocide using the full recently launched definition.

June 2021 - BANGLADESH

Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change recommends adding a provision to the Code of Criminal Procedure or drafting a new legal framework to codify ecocide.

June 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION

The EU’s newly adopted Biodiversity Strategy includes: "Encourages the EU and the Member States to promote the recognition of ecocide as an international crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)"

May 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION

European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee on the liability of companies for environmental damage urges the European Commission to “study the relevance of ecocide to EU law and EU diplomacy” (para 12).

May 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION

European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs resolves to encourage “the EU and its Member States to take a bold initiative ... to pave the way within the International Criminal Court (ICC) towards new negotiations between the parties with a view to recognising ‘ecocide’ as an international crime under the Rome Statute” (para 11).

February 2021 - LUXEMBOURG

Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Environment jointly state that Luxembourg is "ready to support the recognition of ecocide in European and international law when the time comes".

January 2021 - CANADA

Official response to ecocide petition says Canada will “follow closely the discussions on ecocide at the international level”

January 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION

ENVI (environmental) committee calls on the Commission and member states to support recognition of ecocide in international law, and on the Commission to study its relevance for EU law

January 2021 - FINLAND

Former President of Finland (2000-2012), Tarja Halonen, publically expresses her support for an international crime of ecocide.

January 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION

Parliament votes to encourage member states to support recognition of ecocide as a crime at the ICC

December 2020 - SPAIN

Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee presents recommendation to Spanish government to examine possibility of legislating for ecocide nationally and internationally

December 2020 - NETHERLANDS

Party for the Animals delivers white paper on ecocide to parliament

December 2020 - BELGIUM

Official statement made to the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties by Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès makes Belgium first European nation to raise criminalising ecocide at the International Criminal Court.

December 2020 - FINLAND

Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto delivers special message at ICC side event of support for Vanuatu & the Maldives and interest in ecocide discussion and ecocide definition drafting

October 2020 - PORTUGAL

PAN party proposes legislating for ecocide in parliament, motion defeated but discussion is productive (see January 2021)

October 2020 - BELGIUM

Newly formed Belgian government pledges to “take diplomatic action to halt ecocide crime” as part of its government programme.

October 2020 - UK

Shadow Justice Minister David Lammy calls for ecocide to be criminalised in his TED Countdown talk

Sept/Oct 2020 - SWEDEN

Two motions on ecocide submitted to the Swedish parliament, one from the Left Party and one from the Greens/Social Democrats.

July 2020 - SWEDEN

MPs from both ruling parties (Green and Social Democrat) contact Stop Ecocide Foundation requesting a draft legal definition of ecocide / Rome Statute amendment

July 2020 - BELGIUM

Motion submitted to parliament by Green parties calling for ecocide legislation nationally and internationally.

June 2020 - FRANCE

President Macron promises to champion  recognition of ecocide on the international stage and examine it for inclusion into French law, in response to proposals from Citizens Climate Assembly

March 2020 - SWEDEN

Workers movement urges Sweden to lead on proposing ecocide crime.

December 2019 - VANUATU and the MALDIVES

Call for serious consideration of ecocide crime at the International Criminal Court’s assembly.

November 2019 - VATICAN

Pope Francis calls for ecocide to be made a “fifth category of crimes against peace” at the International Criminal Court