Republic of Finland: Minister of the Environment and Climate Change

“The destruction of nature is no longer a local or national problem. Ecosystems do not acknowledge borders, and nature has no nationality. That is why ecocide should be an international crime… Thank you Stop Ecocide International for your important work.”

MP of Åland & Member of the Nordic Council

“Treaties without enforcement mechanisms have not proven successful. With an increasing ecological crisis, we must change the global rules. A strong international ecocide legislation has never been more needed.”

National Focal point, Antigua & Barbuda

“If the ICC recognised an international crime of ecocide then they could investigate the most severe crimes and companies would take it more seriously. All companies are concerned about reputational damage, no company wants to be known as someone who is doing irreparable damage.”

Former Deputy Prime Minister of Finland and Honorary President of WWF Finland

"I am dismayed by the destruction of nature I see around me and in the media.
We are a huge number of people who want to stop that. Ecocide must be made a crime in international law."

Spanish politician and biochemist, Director General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999. Doctor of Pharmacy and current President of the Fundación Cultura de Paz

"Our societies have to be able to comply with intergenerational obligations. Establishing ecocide as an international crime is essential to create the necessary legal framework to protect planetary life and safeguard the future in peace of current and future generations"

Spanish politician and biochemist, Director General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999. Doctor of Pharmacy and current President of the Fundación Cultura de Paz

"Our societies have to be able to comply with intergenerational obligations. Establishing ecocide as an international crime is essential to create the necessary legal framework to protect planetary life and safeguard the future in peace of current and future generations"

Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland

“The climate and ecological crises can be addressed together through an ecocide law. In the Scottish Parliament I am building support for Scotland to join others in the international community in support of the Stop Ecocide International campaign. Stopping ecocide is not a choice, it is our duty. All of us can be earth protectors and take bold action to avert climate and ecological catastrophe.”

Author, speaker & ocean rower

“Women have a crucial role to play in protecting our planet and restoring our relationship with the natural world. We’re already seeing women of all ages from teens to eighties stepping up and speaking up on behalf of the Earth, the late, great Polly Higgins among them. It’s wonderful to see Jojo stewarding Polly’s legacy, and taking it to ever greater heights.”

UK MP for Brighton Pavilion. Former Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

“Establishing the law of Ecocide would signal a major breakthrough in the way we deal with crimes against the natural world. Polly Higgins’ groundbreaking proposal to list Ecocide as the fifth global crime against peace would go a long way towards deterring and holding to account CEOs, companies and nations.”

Ambassador of Belgium to The Hague. Diplomatic intervention at the ICC official side event: Ecocide:: 'Ecocide: a fifth crime defined'.

'Belgium is continuing internal discussion with a view to a possible criminalisation of the crime of ecocide in its penal code, complemented by efforts at the international level to raise awareness.'

Former ICC judge. Panelist, Independent Expert Panel for the legal definition of Ecocide Speaking at the ICC official side event: ‘Ecocide: a fifth crime defined.’

‘The scientific evidence and authoritative assessments are overwhelming… For small, vulnerable countries, there is little other option…. it is the rule of law that provides the most effective protection.’

Member of the European Parliament

"The recognition of ecocides has been discussed since the 1960s and the use in Vietnam of the Agent Orange on ecosystems and the population. More than 50 years later, the gravest environmental crimes remain unpunished, and justice has still to come for the Vietnamese, and all the other victims of ecocides, humans or non-humans. We still have the choice to save our planet, or not. It is time to recognize ecocide."

4th President of the International Criminal Court

"I’m firmly in favour of seeing ecocide made an international crime over which the ICC has jurisdiction."

Federal Minister for the Environment

“The inclusion of ecocide as a crime in the Rome Statute would mean that the International Criminal Court would have the power to try these crimes just as it can today condemn a crime of genocide or a crime against humanity.....Agreeing on ecocide as a crime could contribute to a change of mentality and to increased environmental protection."

Former Commonwealth Secretary General and author of ‘Our Country, the Planet’

“I urge serious global support for the work of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, organised by the Stop Ecocide Foundation. Their ‘Commentary and Core Text’ of a definition of ‘ecocide’ as an international crime deserve humanity’s urgent attention.”

Former UN Special Rapporteur, Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University

Richard A. Falk drafted an Ecocide Convention in 1973, explicitly recognizing at the outset "that man has consciously and unconsciously inflicted irreparable damage to the environment in times of war and peace.”

First Vice President of the European Commission

“Within 2-3 years our citizens will have the same sense of urgency pertaining to the risk of ecocide as they have now with the climate crisis, and its right to have that.”

Former President of Finland (2000-2012)

"Stopping Ecocide through international criminal law is essential for the survival of our cultures and economies and decisive in order to safeguard global ecosystems with their species variety, as the collective life insurance of humanity."

Speaking at the ICC official side event: 'Ecocide: a fifth crime defined'

'Ecocide would need to be a true ICC crime inline with the Rome Statute and in harnessing the power of international criminal law for the protection of our shared global government.'

Journalist, author and activist

"We are in an environmental emergency.”

“It is time to make ecocide a crime against humanity and put the rights of people and Nature first to create a healthy and sustainable planet for all species."

President of Vanuatu

"We call on states to join the group of nations proposing to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome statute. Acting with the knowledge of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment can no longer be tolerated.”