UN human rights chief: “ecocide legislation will strengthen accountability for environmental harms.”

May 31, 2024

In a speech given at the "Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises" conference in Amsterdam, organised by the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reaffirmed his support for bringing the crime of ecocide within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the wide ranging speech, the High Commissioner called for environmental crimes to be considered on a par with the human impacts of other atrocities and for states to employ criminal law ’more expansively’ as a tool to align their environmental laws and policies with their human rights obligations.

Summary:

In a speech given at the "Promise of International Law in the Face of Ecological Crises" conference in Amsterdam, organised by the UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reaffirmed his support for bringing the crime of ecocide within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In the wide ranging speech, the High Commissioner called for environmental crimes to be considered on a par with the human impacts of other atrocities and for states to employ criminal law ’more expansively’ as a tool to align their environmental laws and policies with their human rights obligations.
Türk highlighted the European Union's newly adopted revised Environmental Crimes Directive and its broader implications, saying, “such recognition of environmental crimes, including the crime of ecocide, by international, regional, and domestic legal systems would strengthen accountability for environmental harms.”
The High Commissioner has previously expressed enthusiasm for inclusion of the international crime of “ecocide” in the Rome Statute, most notably during his opening speech of the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2023.

You can read the full transcript of the UN High Commissioners speech here.