First Draft ICC

In the Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind, genocide was defined in accordance with the Genocide Convention as ‘acts by the authorities of a State or by private individuals, committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such’. This broad acceptance was reflected in the literal inclusion of the definition of genocide in statutes of the ICTY, ICTR, and ICC. There was also very little debate about this definition, confirming that state involvement is not required as a legal element of this crime. (Organizing Rebellion: Non-State Armed Groups under International Law, by Tilman Rodenhäuser)

First Draft Code of Offences against Peace and Security of Mankind contain 4 articles but work was interrupted owing to lack of agreement on the concept of aggression and later because of the power politics of the Cold War (resulting lack of political will to proceed development) (The Institutionalization of the International Criminal Court, by Salla Huikuri).

Professor Arthur W. Galston coined ‘ecocide’ at the Conference on War and National Responsibility in Washington, where he also proposed a new international agreement to ban ecocide. Galston was a US biologist who identified the defoliant effects of a chemical later developed into Agent Orange. Subsequently a bioethicist, he was the first in 1970 to name massive damage and destruction of ecosystems as an ecocide.

PM of Sweden Olof Palme at the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (which adopted the Stockholm Declaration) referred in his opening speech explicitly to the Vietnam war as ecocide, and it was discussed in the unofficial events running parallel to the official UN Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. Others, including Indira Gandhi from India and Tang Ke, the leader of the Chinese delegation, also
denounced the war in human and environmental terms.

Gandhi – “Poverty is the greatest polluter”

A Working Group on Crimes Against the Environment was formed at the conference, and a draft Ecocide Convention was submitted into the United Nations in 1973.

Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities prepared a study (pp 128-134) for the UN Human Right’s Commission discussing the effectiveness of the Genocide Convention, proposing the addition of ecocide, as well as the reintroduction of cultural genocide, to the list of crimes

https://legal.un.org/ilc/summaries/7_4.shtml

UNGA A/RES/36/106 invited ILC (10 December 1981) to resume task with a view to elaborating a renewed version of the Draft Code of Offences Against Peace and Security of Mankind

ILC included the item “Draft Code of Offences against Peace and Security of Mankind” to its agenda and Doudou Thiam appointed Special Rapporteur for the subject

ILC prepared a project with 26 articles which was adopted on first reading in 1991, para 100 1983 Bulgaria felt that “proper place in the future Code should be found for acts damaging the environment in a manner threatening the security of mankind as a whole”. Uruguay expressed the opinion that particular emphasis should be placed on the crime of the use of environmental modification techniques for military and other hostile purposes. The representative of Zaire (today DRC), in that connection, drew attention to the World Charter for Nature adopted by the UNGA at its 37 th Session.

ILC considered whether to include a law regarding environmental damage into the draft Code, 1984 36 th Session ILC in favour of including colonialism, apartheid and possibly serious damage to the human environment and economic aggression, if appropriate legal formulations could be found, 1985 37 th Session para 69 “… the SP took the view that an offence against the peace and security of mankind was constituted by the breach of obligations intended to protect the most fundamental interests of mankind, namely those which reflected mankind’s basic needs and concerns and on which the preservation of the human race depended. Such interests were the maintenance of peace, the protection of fundamental human rights, the safeguarding of the right of self-determination of peoples and the safeguarding and preservation of the human environment”, 1986 38th Session paras 95-96 “the SP suggested that CAH should include any serious breach of an international obligation of essential importance for the safeguarding and preservation of the human environment…” “The comments made by the Commission in that regard stressed the fact that account had to be taken of the seriousness of damage to the environment and of the element of intent. It was pointed out that any provision relating to such an offence had to be extremely precise because less serious damage to the environment was not necessarily a crime against humanity. Some members were of the opinion that the draft code should refer only to serious breach of the relevant treaties and conventions. Other members expressed doubts about the criminal nature of damage to the environment.”

At the behest of Trinidad and Tobago via UNGA Resolution A/RES/44/39 (4 December 1989) requested ILC to revisit issue of an international criminal court arose in the context of the need for a criminal jurisdiction to consider transnational crimes, in particular drug trafficking.

ILC Report 46 th Session A/46/10 ILC created Draft Code of Crimes Against Peace and Security of Mankind – 12 crimes (aggression; threat of  aggression; intervention; colonial domination and other forms of alien domination; (UNGA Resolutions); genocide; apartheid; (multilateral conventions); systematic or mass violations of human rights; (Nuremberg); exceptionally serious war crimes; recruitment, financing and training of
mercenaries; (multilateral conventions); international terrorism, illicit traffic in narcotic drugs; (new general descriptions); and willful and severe damage to the environment (Article 35(3) and Article 55 of the 1977 Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions)) page 107 – “an individual who willfully causes or orders the causing of widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment shall, on conviction thereof, be
sentenced”

Work on Draft Code resumed, ILC adopted the Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court

ILC 47 th Session (May 2 nd – July 21 st ) Working Group was established to examine covering environmental crimes

ILC reduced by 6 crimes (the threat of aggression; intervention; colonial domination and other forms of alien domination; apartheid; the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries; and willful and severe damage to the environment), but to continue consultation as regards articles dealing with illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and willful and severe damage to the environment, with respect to the latter ILC decided to establish a WG that would meet at the beginning of the 48 th Session to examine the possibility of covering in the draft Code the issue of willful and severe damage to the environment

ILC 48 th Session Working Group issued a report recommending that environmental crimes be included either as a separate provision (Art 26), as a crime against humanity (Art 21) or as a war crime (Art 22)

Reduced by 2 crimes, Article 26 disappeared (only as war crime but exclusion proved highly controversial) as well as illicit traffic in narcotic drugs, 4 crimes recognised by the Nuremberg trial retained (aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes) including last minute fifth crime (Article 19 crimes against United Nations and associated personnel)

UNGA (30 th January 1997) draws the attention of the States participating in the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court to the relevance of the Draft Code to their work

After a five week diplomatic conference in Rome, 120 states adopted a Statute in Rome, establishing the International Criminal Court

Entry into force of the Rome Statute (1 st July 2002)

(6 th November 2008) Polly spoke in Belfast at the United Nations Association (UNA) Northern Ireland (NI) one-day “Call to Action” conference on Climate Change on (Why We Need) an International/a Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights

Submission of definition of ecocide by Polly to the ILC; Review Conference in Kampala on the crime of aggression

European Citizens Initiative to recognise the crime of ecocide

ICC OTP Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritisation

16 th Session of the ASP of the ICC in New York with two side events on ecocide (one that was blocked by Indonesia)

Entry into force of the crime of aggression; Polly launches preliminary investigation of 3 suspects of climate ecocide; two side events on the Policy Paper at the 17 th Session of the ASP of the ICC in The Hague

Vanuatu and the Maldives call on the serious consideration of an amendment to the Rome Statute to include the crime of ecocide; Kiribati became the 123 rd state party to the Rome Statute

France’s Convention Citoyenne pour la Climat
Belgium Ecolo-Groen’s call for ecocide
Greta Thunberg & Co endorses ecocide campaign