Lily Grisafi, Prosecuting International Environmental Crime Committed Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, Columbia Human Rights Law Review Online, Vol. 5, pp. 26-59 (Nov. 2020)

This Article investigates current international environmental crimes perpetrated against the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon and details how and why these crimes must be investigated and prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC). First, this Article illustrates the severity of the environmental crimes in the Brazilian Amazon, in order to explain why these crimes qualify as international crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC. This Article then illuminates the legal support explicitly and implicitly included in the language of the Rome Statute that allows the ICC to prosecute such environmental crimes. Keeping in mind the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s 2016 policy paper on case selection and prioritization–which put forth the environmentalist policy goals of the ICC–the language of the Rome Statute allows for the prosecution of environmental crimes as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Finally, this Article combines the above analyses to evaluate the viability of ICC prosecutions of the international environmental crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon. Based on the facts of the current situation in the Amazon, and on the language of the Rome Statute, the Office of the Prosecutor should investigate both crimes against humanity and acts of genocide carried out against the indigenous peoples of Brazil. More specifically, the Office of the Prosecutor should investigate the crimes against humanity of forcible transfer, extermination, and persecution—all of which are being perpetrated through environmental means. Regarding acts of genocide, the Office of the Prosecutor should investigate environmental degradation calculated to bring about the destruction of the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon and should also investigate President Jair Bolsonaro for inciting others to commit these genocidal acts.