Ecocide

September 7, 2023

Mexico’s Maya train project has been described as a “megaproject of death” — it imperils the Yucatán peninsula’s rich wilderness, ancient cave systems and indigenous communities.
The Tribunal for the Rights of Nature said the project caused “crimes of ecocide and ethnocide”.

ABOUT ECOCIDE

Ecocide, derived from Greek and Latin, translates to ‘killing one’s home’ or ‘environment’.
There is no accepted legal definition of ecocide, but Ecocide as defined by the Stop Ecocide Foundation.
- Ecocide is the “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”

At present, the Rome Statute of the ICC deals with four atrocities: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

The provision on war crimes is the only statute that can hold a perpetrator responsible for environmental damage, albeit if it is intentionally caused and during wartime situations.

Biologist Arthur Galston in 1970 is credited be the first to link environmental destruction with genocide, which is recognised as an international crime, when referring to the S. military’s use of Agent Orange (a herbicide) during the Vietnam War.
British Lawyer Polly Higgins proposed that the Rome Statute should be amended to treat crimes against nature on par with crimes against people.
Ecocide is a crime in 11 countries, with 27 other nations mulling laws around criminalising environmental damage that is wilfully caused and harms humans, animals and plant species.