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Selected Previous Drafts of the International Crime of Ecocide

Richard A. Falk, Environmental Warfare and Ecocide—Facts, Appraisal and Proposals, 9(1) Revue Belge de Droit International [RBDI/Belg. Rev. Int’l L.] 1 annex at 21–24 (1973) (Belg.) (A Proposed International Convention on the Crime of Ecocide)

Article I

The Contracting Parties confirm that ecocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.

Article II 

In the present Convention, ecocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to disrupt or destroy, in whole or in part, a human ecosystem:

  1. The use of weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear, bacteriological, chemical, or other;
  2. The use of chemical herbicides to defoliate and deforest natural forests for military purposes;
  3. The use of bombs and artillery in such quantity, density, or size as to impair the quality of soil or to enhance the prospects of diseases dangerous to human beings, animals or crops;
  4. The use of bulldozing equipment to destroy large tracts of forest or cropland for military purposes;
  5. The use of techniques designed to increase or decrease rainfall or otherwise modify weather as a weapon of war;
  6. The forcible removal of human beings or animals from their habitual places of habitation to expedite the pursuit of military or industrial objectives.
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Human Rights Sub-Comm’n on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Revised and Updated Rep. on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, ¶ 33, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1985/6 (July 2, 1985)

Citing previous Sub-Commission reports, this updated report by Benjamin Whitaker, Special Rapporteur on genocide, reports that some of his fellow members have proposed broadening the definition of genocide to include ecocide:

adverse alterations, often irreparable, to the environment—for example through nuclear explosions, chemical weapons, serious pollution and acid rain, or destruction of the rain forest—which threaten the existence of entire populations, whether deliberately or with criminal negligence.

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Report of the International Law Commission to the General Assembly on the work of its forty-third session, U.N. Doc. A/46/10 (1991), reprinted in [1991] 2 Y.B. Int’l L.aw Comm’n 107, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1991/Add.1 (Part 2)

Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind

Article 26. Wilful and severe damage to the environment 

An individual who wilfully causes or orders the causing of widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environmental shall, on conviction thereof, be sentenced [to . . . ].

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Steven Freeland, “Crimes Against the Environment—A Role for the International Criminal Court?”, in Droit de l’environnement dans le Pacifique Prolematiques et Perspectives Croisées [Environmental Law in the Pacific: International and Comparative Perspectives], 358 (Alberto Costi & Yves-Louis Sage eds., 2005)

Freeland broadly defines “crimes against the environment,” the breach of which could potentially trigger international criminal responsibility, as follows:

A deliberate action committed with intent to cause significant harm to the environment, including ecological, biological and natural resource systems, in order to promote a particular military, strategic, political or other aim, and which does in fact cause such damage.

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Polly Higgins, Ecocide Crime, Eradicating Ecocide

The Model Law – proposed amendment to the Rome Statute (2010)

Ecocide crime is:

  1. acts or omissions committed in times of peace or conflict by any senior person within the course of State, corporate or any other entity’s activity which cause, contribute to, or may be expected to cause or contribute to serious ecological, climate or cultural loss or damage to or destruction of ecosystem(s) of a given territory(ies), such that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or will be severely diminished.
  2. To establish seriousness, impact(s) must be widespread, long-term or severe.
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Polly Higgins, Eradicating Ecocide: Exposing the Corporate and Political Practices Destroying the Planet and Proposing the Laws Needed to Eradicate Ecocide 63 (2010)

the extensive destruction, damage to or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished

Steven Freeland, Addressing the International Destruction of the Environment during Warfare under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2015)

Proposed article 8 ter of the Rome Statute

Article 8 ter

Crimes against the environment

  1. For the purposes of this Statute, “crimes against the environment” means employing, within the context of and associated with an armed conflict, a method or means of warfare with intent to cause widespread, long-term or severe damage to the natural environment.
  2. For the purposes of paragraph 1:
    1. a person has “intent” to cause widespread, long-term or severe damage to the natural environment where:
      1. that person means to cause such damage; or
      2. that person is aware of the substantial likelihood that such damage will occur in the ordinary course of events; or
      3. that person consciously disregards information that clearly indicates a substantial likelihood that such damage will occur in the ordinary course of events;
    2. “widespread” means an area on the scale of at least one hundred square kilometers;
    3. “long-term” means lasting at least for a period of one or more seasons;
    4. “severe” means serious disruption, degradation or harm;
    5. “natural environment” includes those ecological, biological and resource systems necessary to sustain continued existence of all forms of human, animal, or plant life;
    6. “damage to the natural environment” includes but is not limited to circumstances that constitute a concrete endangerment to human life or health, and my include any of the following:
      1. destruction or degradation of the marine environment, marine wildlife, or marine habitats;
      2. destruction or degradation of terrestrial fauna and flora, or their habitats;
      3. pollution of the atmosphere;
      4. destructive climate modification;
      5. any other form of environmental destruction, degradation or harm of comparable gravity.

Laurent Neyret, Projet de Convention contre l’écocide, in Des Écocrimes à l’Écocide : Le droit pénal au secours de l’environnement 287–88 (2015)

Article 1 – Champ d’application 

  1. La présente Convention s’applique aux crimes les plus graves contre l’environnement qui, en temps de paix comme en temps de conflit armé, portent atteinte à la sûreté de la planète.
  2. La présente Convention est sans préjudice des règles pertinentes du droit international humanitaire interdisant les atteintes à l’environnement en temps de conflit armé.

Article 2 – Définition de l’écocide 

  1. Aux fins de la présente Convention, on entend par écocide les actes intentionnels commis dans le cadre d’une action généralisée ou systématique et qui portent atteinte à la sûreté de la planète, définis ci-après :
    1. le rejet, l’émission ou l’introduction d’une quantité de substances ou de radiations ionisantes dans l’air ou l’atmosphère, les sois, les eaux ou les milieux aquatiques ;
    2. la collecte, le transport, la valorisation ou l’élimination de déchets, y compris la surveillance de ces opérations ainsi que l’entretien subséquent des sites de décharge et notamment les actions menées en tant que négociant ou courtier dans toute activité liée à la gestion des déchets.
    3. l’exploitation d’une usine dans laquelle une activité dangereuse est exercée ou des substances ou préparations dangereuses sont stockées ou utilisées ;
    4. la production, le traitement, la manipulation, l’utilisation, la détention, le stockage, le transport, l’importation, l’exportation ou l’élimination de matières nucléaires ou d’autres substances radioactives dangereuses ;
    5. la mise à mort, la destruction, la possession ou la capture de spécimens d’espèces de faune et de flore sauvages protégées ou non ;
    6. les autres actes de caractère analogue commis intentionnellement et qui portent atteinte à la sûreté de la planète.
  2. Les actes visés au paragraphe 1 portent atteinte à la sûreté de la planète lorsqu’ils causent :
    1. une dégradation étendue, durable et grave de l’air ou de l’atmosphère, des sols, des eaux, des milieux aquatiques, de la faune ou de la flore, ou de leurs fonctions écologiques ;
    2. la mort, des infirmités permanentes ou des maladies incurables graves à une population ou lorsqu’ils dépossèdent durablement cette dernière de ses terres, territoires ou ressources.
  3. Les actes visés au paragraphe 1 doivent être commis intentionnellement et en connaissance du caractère généralisé ou systématique de l’action dans laquelle ils s’inscrivent. Ces actes sont également considérés comme intentionnels lorsque leur auteur savait ou aurait dû savoir qu’il existait une haute probabilité qu’ils portent atteinte à la sûreté de la planète.

Valérie Cabanes, Amicus ICC crime of ecocide amendments, (2016)

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Laurent Neyret, Cambridge Centre for Env’t, Energy & Nat. Resource Governance, Draft Convention against Ecocide, in From Ecocrimes to Ecocide. Protecting the Environment through Criminal Law 35, 37 (2017).

Article 1 – Scope of application

  1. The provisions of this Convention shall apply to the most serious crimes against the environment that, both in times of peace and in times of armed conflict, have an impact on the safety of the planet.
  2. The present Convention is without prejudice to the relevant rules of international humanitarian law prohibiting environmental damage in time of armed conflict.

Article 2 – Definition of ecocide

  1. For the purposes of this Convention, ecocide means the intentional acts committed in the context of a widespread [or] systematic action that have an adverse impact on the safety of the planet, such acts being defined as follows:
    1. The discharge, emission or introduction of a quantity of substances or ionizing radiation into air or atmosphere, soil, water or the aquatic environments;
    2. The collection, transport, recovery or disposal of waste, including the supervision of such operations and the after-care of disposal sites, and including action taken as a dealer or a broker in the framework of any activity related to the waste management;
    3. The operation of a plant in which dangerous activity is carried out or in which dangerous substances or preparations are stored or used;
    4. The production, processing, handling, use, holding, storage, transport, import, export or disposal of nuclear materials or other hazardous radioactive substances;
    5. The killing, destruction, possession or taking of specimens of wild fauna or flora species whether protected or note; [f)] other acts of a similar character committed intentionally that adversely affect the safety of the planet.
  2. The acts referred to in paragraph 1 adversely affecting [sic] the safety of the planet when they cause:
    1. A widespread, constant and serious degradation of the quality of air or the atmosphere, the quality of soil or the quality of water, the fauna and flora or their ecological functions; or
    2. Death, permanent disabilities or other incurable serious illnesses to a population or they strip permanently the latter of their lands, territories or resources;

The acts referred to in paragraph 1 must have been committed intentionally and with knowledge of the widespread [or] systematic nature of the actions in whose framework the aforementioned acts are being carried out. These acts shall also be deemed intentional where their perpetrator either knew or should have known that there existed a high probability that such acts may adversely affect the safety of the planet.