A debate ‘From genocide to ecocide: with Philippe Sands’.
Co-presented with ARTE, TRIAL International and the Délégation Genève Ville Solidaire (DGVS)

Introduction

Alfonso Gomez Administrative Councillor of the City of Geneva, in charge of the Department of Finance, Environment and Housing

Philip Grant Executive Director, TRIAL International

Speakers

Philippe Sands Human Rights Lawyer, Professor of Law at University College London and Co-Chair of an international workgroup on ecocide

Moderated by

Elisabeth Quin Journalist and writer, presenter of the programme 28 minutes, Arte

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Philippe Sands is a novelist, law professor and lawyer. The duty to remember, the Shoah and the question of responsibility run through all his books. He argues for ecocide to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

How was international justice created after the horrors of the Holocaust? In Return to Lemberg, Philippe Sands follows the fate of the two men who shaped the notion of genocide and crimes against humanity. Both lived in Lemberg, now Lviv in Ukraine, where his maternal grandfather was born. Starting from the birth of international justice and the International Criminal Court, Philippe Sands suggests going further and adding ecocide to the four crimes (genocide, crime against humanity, war crime, crime of aggression) that appear in the Rome Statute, the international treaty that founded the International Criminal Court: "We must now move beyond mere human beings and protect the ecosystems and the well-being of the planet. In this discussion with journalist Elisabeth Quin, Philippe Sands will talk about his inspiration, his family history and his refusal to refer to those who have committed monstrosities as monsters.