The global push to criminalise 'ecocide'

Ecocide or ‘killing one’s home’ or ‘environment’ refers to acts like port expansion projects, deforestation, illegal sand mining, polluting rivers and releasing untreated sewage, etc., that destroy fragile natural ecosystems and local livelihoods.

Mexico is the latest country to consider passing a law to make ecocide a crime.

The bill was proposed by a congresswoman from Nuevo Leon, Karina Marlen Barrón Perales (PRI) on July 30 as a consequence of the ‘Maya Train Project’ which would cover 1,525 km and connect tourists in the Caribbean with Maya sites.

The project would threaten the biodiversity of the Yucatan peninsula and the culture of its ethnic communities.

Countries that have criminalised ecocide include Vietnam, Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine’s public prosecutor is investigating a possible case of ecocide against Russia for the Kakhovka dam breach where earlier this year, an explosion destroyed the dam where vast amounts of polluted water was unleashed downstream along the Dnipro river, flooding dozens of settlements, killing dolphins at an alarming rate and making farmlands unusable.

In France, carcinogen chemical trichloroethylene was detected by a resident of Grézieu-La-Varenne in 2019 who found a foul-smelling liquid in her backyard which was 800 times the legally acceptable limit.

Alongside the criminal trial for ‘ecocide’, six civil lawsuits have also been filed by residents which found two solicitors and one real estate company guilty.

In Brazil, the Socialism and Liberty Party put an ecocide bill to congress in June after merciless deforestation of the Amazon rainforest continued to batter the natural environment.

Around March 2023, the European parliament supported the inclusion of ecocide-level crimes into the EU’s revised environmental crimes directive. If this passes through the legislative process, then member states will be required to make ecocide a crime through national law.

While causing damage to the environment is already a crime in most countries, recognition of ecocide elevates the most abominable cases to a crime.

In 2021, a panel of criminal and environmental lawyers from around the world created a legal definition for “ecocide” which is part of an ongoing effort by NGO Stop Ecocide to add environmental damage to the list of international crimes at the International Criminal Court.

The consequences of environmental damage are listed in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023, where climate change and biodiversity collapse are one of the top five risks facing the world in the coming decade.