Towards an international crime of ecocide

Abstract

On 9 September 2024, the Pacific Island States of Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji jointly submitted a proposal to amend the Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) to the United Nations (‘UN’) Secretary- General. The proposal urges the inclusion of a new, independent crime of “ecocide” under Articles 5 and 8 of the Statute, with the aim of protecting a group of interests that has so far received little attention within the dominant humanitarian paradigm of international criminal justice: the natural environment.1 This policy brief places the recent proposal within the wider ecocide debate, highlighting its historical evolution, definitional conundrums, procedural pathways, and political stakes.