March 2024 - FINLAND
On February 20, 2024, a group of Finnish Green MPs, including former Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo, submitted a formal written question to the government, inquiring about the administration's intentions to promote the establishment of a new standalone international crime of ecocide via the International Criminal Court.
February 2024 - BELGIUM
Belgium’s Federal Parliament voted in favour of a new penal code for the country, which, for the first time in Europe, includes recognition of the crime of ecocide at both the national and international levels. Nationally, the new crime of ecocide, aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe cases of environmentaldegradation, such as extensive oil spills, will apply to individuals in the highest positions of decision-making power and to corporations.
December 2023 - SAMOA, VANUATU, ROMANIA, ESTONIA & UKRAINE
Two official side events focusing on ecocide were held at the International Criminal Court’s 22nd Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute held at the UN in New York. Vanuatu & Samoa joined forces with the Stop Ecocide Foundation for an event on 11th Dec focusing on victims of ecocide while Estonia & Romania joined Ukraine on 12th Dec to highlight the need to address ecocide in armed conflict.
December 2023 - UNITED KINGDOM
A Private Members Bill dubbed the 'Ecocide Bill', introduced by Baroness Rosie Boycott, aims to close an existing gap in UK criminal law which allows perpetrators of the most severe environmental harms to escape accountability.
November 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION
The EU has agreed to enshrine in law a new offence that aims to punish the most serious crimes against the environment. The final text emerged following several months of negotiation (“trilogues”) between the European Council, Commission and Parliament considering, inter alia, the establishment of a “qualified offence” aimed at preventing and punishing the gravest environmental harms including, as the accompanying recitals specify, “cases comparable to ecocide”.
November 2023 - BRAZIL
The Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Deputies Chamber of the Brazilian Congress approved Bill No 2933/2023 which aims to criminalize the most serious cases of illegal or wanton destruction of the environment, known as “ecocide”. This Bill has been authored and submitted by the PSOL party and supported by a coalition or organisations including Ecoe Brasil, Climate Counsel, Observatório do Clima and Stop Ecocide International.
November 2023 - SCOTLAND
Monica Lennon MSP lodged proposals for a Members’ Bill in the Scottish Parliament asking people to support an ecocide prevention law that could see big polluters jailed for between 10 and 20 years.
November 2023 - NORDIC COUNCIL
The Nordic Council voted unanimously in a session in Oslo, Norway to adopt a recommendation calling for ‘the Nordic governments to participate in relevant international discussions to criminalise serious crimes against the natural environment in both wartime and peacetime.’
October 2023 - CHILE
On August 17, a new law, Law 21.595 was published in Chile. It modifies the Penal Code in terms of economic crimes and incorporates a new section on "Attacks against the environment", which includes several elements of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert Panel, convened by Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021.
September 2023 - ITALY
Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (Greens and Left Alliance), supported by Stop Ecocidio Italia and Stop Ecocide International, has submitted a bill aimed at preventing and criminalising ecocide to the Italian Parliament.
The proposed bill, which is directly based on the wording of the legal definition of ecocide formulated by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation in 2021, has been formally submitted to parliament, with debate and votes due to take place in the coming months.
July 2023 - MEXICO
Deputy Karina Marlen Barrón Perales (PRI) proposed adding a new article to Mexico's Federal Penal Code punishing anyone who perpetrates "any unlawful or wanton act committed with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”.
July 2023 - SPAIN/CATALUNYA
The Catalan Parliament has initiated a procedure to bring before the National Congress of Deputies a bill to include the crime of ecocide in the Spanish Penal Code. From here, the proposal will continue its progress. There will be several months of hearings in which amendments can be introduced to the text, after which a final vote will take place at the Catalan Parliament.
July 2023 - NETHERLANDS
Member of Parliament Lammert van Raan of Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), officially launched a law proposal to criminalise ecocide in the Netherlands.
The proposal is currently subject to four weeks of public consultation prior to being submitted for advisory opinion to the Council of State. For the bill to become law, it will then need to be approved by Parliament.
July 2023 - BELGIUM
The Belgian Council of Ministers approved the second reading of a bill outlining proposed reforms to the nation’s penal code. Among the new crimes listed for inclusion is Ecocide. Pending approval by Parliament later this year, the development sees Belgium set to become the twelfth country to add the crime to its statute books.
July 2023 - OSCE PA
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has called on parliaments of its participating States to enshrine the concept of ecocide in national and international law.
June 2023 - BRAZIL
The Brazilian political party PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade) submitted a new Ecocide Bill to the Brazilian Congress. The proposed ecocide law seeks to criminalise “performing illegal or wanton acts with the knowledge that they generate a substantial probability of serious and widespread or long-term damage to the environment.”
June 2023 - AUSTRIA
At a UN Security Council open debate on the effects of climate change on peace and security, the Austrian Ambassador suggested that ‘the international community should consider making widespread long-term damage to the environment a crime under international law — referred to as “ecocide”. ‘
May 2023 - SPAIN
On 9 May 2023, the Spanish government officially answered to a written question submitted by Inés Sabanés Nadal, MP for Más País Verdes Equo, on whether the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge intended to support the proposal to recognise ecocide and autonomous crimes against the environment in the framework of the European Council.
March 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION
Via announcement at a monthly plenary session, the European Parliament officially declared its support of the inclusion of ecocide-level crimes into the European Union’s revised Directive on protection of the environment through criminal law.
March 2023 - EUROPEAN UNION
Following the direction of travel established in the 4 previous consultative committees, the last and most important of these in the context of this Directive, the legal affairs (JURI) committee, unanimously voted to include the most serious environmental crimes - widely known as “ecocide” - in its proposed text for the Directive which will be presented in the EU Parliament on 17th April.
March 2023 - 6 PACIFIC NATIONS
Governments of Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Solomon Islands collective call [link PDF] to phase out fossil fuels, support a rapid and just Pacific transition to renewable energy, and strengthen related legal obligations - including to “prevent Ecocide”.
March 2023 - UKRAINE
United for Justice state-hosted conference in Lviv discusses ecocide law in high-level panel ”Prosecuting Environmental War Crimes” featuring Environment Minister, following severe environmental damage suffered in Ukraine as a result of Russian invasion.
January 2023 - COUNCIL OF EUROPE (46 STATES)
Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe adopts resolution and recommendation calling for recognition of ecocide, based on report from its Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development on the Environmental impact of armed conflicts.
December 2022 - BELGIUM
General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib reiterates Belgium’s “willingness to engage in consideration of the introduction of a crime known as ‘ecocide’ into the Rome Statute system.”
December 2022 - AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Hon. Nanaia Mahuta made a strong statement in support of “future discussions around the concept of ecocide as an international crime to address environmental destruction at a global level.”
December 2022 - FINLAND
General Debate, Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto welcomes “every effort to use international criminal justice to respond” to the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, and notes the Assembly provides a context to “continue discussions on the ecocide initiative.”
November 2022 - UKRAINE
At the G20 summit in Indonesia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine set out in a speech to world leaders a 10-point Peace Formula aimed at restoring just and long-lasting peace for Ukraine. Covering nuclear safety, food and security, ceasing of hostilities and the upholding of the UN Charter, point 8 of the plan addresses the challenge of “countering ecocide”.
September 2022 - PANAMA
UN General Assembly: the Vice President of the Republic of Panama, José Gabriel Carrizo, argued that "the time has come for the world to have an international body to hold accountable all those who cause damage to the planet. […] When is ecocide going to stop?"
September 2022 - VANUATU
UN General Assembly: President Vurobaravu urges statesto support including a crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), telling the Assembly that “acting with knowledge of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment can no longer be tolerated”.
August 2022 - AUSTRALIA
Senator David Shoebridge (Australian Greens), in his first speech to the Australian Senate Chamber on 2nd August, declares he believes it is “time to enact a new criminal offence of ecocide. Ecocide is the mass, widespread damage and destruction of ecosystems in nature.”
June 2022 - KENYA
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Forests, Mr Keriako Tobiko, revealed a landmark legislation proposal, stating that said proposal "contains critical principles”, which include the “recognition of the right to nature and, most importantly, creation of the crime of 'ecocide’”.
May 2022 - CYPRUS
Issue of criminalising ecocide raised during parliamentary speech given by Member of the House of Representatives, Ms. Alexandra Attalides, from Movement of Ecologists-Citizens Cooperation
April 2022 - DENMARK
Danish parliament discusses ecocide following a question submitted to the Foreign Minister and resolves (see 15.22: A. Lind), by large majority, to follow ecocide conversation internationally.
March 2022 - ICELAND
Ecocide parliamentary resolution submitted to Parliament calling for support for international crime of ecocide as well as national ecocide legislation. With cross party support from Pirate Party, Liberal reformation, Social Democrats and Left Green.
February 2022 - EUROPEAN UNION
European Parliament Report on Human Rights & Democracy recommends EU member states to support criminalising ecocide at the ICC & also examine relevance to EU law.
December 2021 - SAMOA
Samoa supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement from the Prime Minister.
December 2021 - BANGLADESH
Bangladesh supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement.
December 2021 - VANUATU
Vanuatu continues its long-standing support of the ecocide conversation at the ICC by co-hosting official side event and providing a supporting statement.
December 2021 - FINLAND
Finland’s foreign minister supports the ecocide conversation at the ICC in his official statement to the Assembly of States Parties
December 2021 - BELGIUM
Belgium supports raising awareness of ecocide internationally in its official statement to the International Criminal Court’s Assembly and intervenes (see 1h26m) in official ICC side event.
November 2021 - IRELAND
Jennifer Whitmore TD asks a parliamentary question: will the Irish government support the recognition of ecocide as an international crime?
November 2021 - West Papua
The provisional government of West Papua launches its Green State Vision in Glasgow during COP26, explicitly including the criminalisation of ecocide.
November 2021 - UK
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, David Lammy MP publicly announces during COP26, the commitment of the Labour Party to support discussions around an international crime of ecocide.
November 2021 - MEXICO
Senator Raúl Paz Alonzo has asked the Mexican Government to recognise ecocide as the fifth Crime against World Peace and Security.
November 2021 - BELGIUM
Belgium’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee passes resolution;
“calling on the Belgian government to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and in the Belgian Penal Code".
October 2021 - SPAIN
A Proposal was registered at the Ecological Transition Committee of the Congress asking the government to support the creation of Ecocide crime. (P. 50)
September 2021 - UK
Lords debate of revised amendment to UK Environment Bill by Baroness Bennett. Environmental bill - Amendment 126: ‘ecocide’, that Her Majesty’s Government support the negotiation of an amendment to the Statute of the International Criminal Court to establish a crime of ecocide.
September 2021 - CHILE
Subcommittee on the General Framework for Human, Environmental & Natural Rights of the Constitutional Convention discusses ecocide, resulting in a favourable vote for an annex (first draft HERE ) to be added to the new Chilean constitution.
August 2021 - FRANCE
Climate & Resilience Act passed, including up to 10 year sentences for "ecocide" offences (Art 231-3) and a requirement for gov't to report on progress towards international crime of ecocide (Art 296)
July 2021 - CHILE
Parliamentary resolution passed calling on the government to pursue proposing an ecocide amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
June 2021 - SCOTLAND
Parliamentary motion calling on the government to welcome the work of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide and welcome the emergence of broad international consensus for the recognition of ecocide as a crime.
June 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION
The EU’s newly adopted Biodiversity Strategy includes: "Encourages the EU and the Member States to promote the recognition of ecocide as an international crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)"
June 2021 - UK
Environment Bill - Two Amendments
287: To support the negotiation of an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to establish a crime of ecocide.
293D : To support a UK crime of ecocide using the full recently launched definition.
June 2021 - BANGLADESH
Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change recommends adding a provision to the Code of Criminal Procedure or drafting a new legal framework to codify ecocide.
May 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION
European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee on the liability of companies for environmental damage urges the European Commission to “study the relevance of ecocide to EU law and EU diplomacy” (para 12).
May 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION
European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs resolves to encourage “the EU and its Member States to take a bold initiative ... to pave the way within the International Criminal Court (ICC) towards new negotiations between the parties with a view to recognising ‘ecocide’ as an international crime under the Rome Statute” (para 11).
February 2021 - LUXEMBOURG
Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Environment jointly state that Luxembourg is "ready to support the recognition of ecocide in European and international law when the time comes".
January 2021 - CANADA
Official response to ecocide petition says Canada will “follow closely the discussions on ecocide at the international level”
January 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION
ENVI (environmental) committee calls on the Commission and member states to support recognition of ecocide in international law, and on the Commission to study its relevance for EU law
January 2021 - FINLAND
Former President of Finland (2000-2012), Tarja Halonen, publically expresses her support for an international crime of ecocide.
January 2021 - EUROPEAN UNION
Parliament votes to encourage member states to support recognition of ecocide as a crime at the ICC
December 2020 - SPAIN
Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee presents recommendation to Spanish government to examine possibility of legislating for ecocide nationally and internationally
December 2020 - NETHERLANDS
Party for the Animals delivers white paper on ecocide to parliament
December 2020 - BELGIUM
Official statement made to the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties by Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès makes Belgium first European nation to raise criminalising ecocide at the International Criminal Court.
December 2020 - FINLAND
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto delivers special message at ICC side event of support for Vanuatu & the Maldives and interest in ecocide discussion and ecocide definition drafting
October 2020 - PORTUGAL
PAN party proposes legislating for ecocide in parliament, motion defeated but discussion is productive (see January 2021)
October 2020 - BELGIUM
Newly formed Belgian government pledges to “take diplomatic action to halt ecocide crime” as part of its government programme.
October 2020 - UK
Shadow Justice Minister David Lammy calls for ecocide to be criminalised in his TED Countdown talk
Sept/Oct 2020 - SWEDEN
Two motions on ecocide submitted to the Swedish parliament, one from the Left Party and one from the Greens/Social Democrats.
July 2020 - SWEDEN
MPs from both ruling parties (Green and Social Democrat) contact Stop Ecocide Foundation requesting a draft legal definition of ecocide / Rome Statute amendment
July 2020 - BELGIUM
Motion submitted to parliament by Green parties calling for ecocide legislation nationally and internationally.
June 2020 - FRANCE
President Macron promises to champion recognition of ecocide on the international stage and examine it for inclusion into French law, in response to proposals from Citizens Climate Assembly
March 2020 - SWEDEN
Workers movement urges Sweden to lead on proposing ecocide crime.
December 2019 - VANUATU and the MALDIVES
Call for serious consideration of ecocide crime at the International Criminal Court’s assembly.
November 2019 - VATICAN
Pope Francis calls for ecocide to be made a “fifth category of crimes against peace” at the International Criminal Court