17 July 2025 – DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
At AMCEN, the DRC reaffirmed its leadership in the push to recognise ecocide as an international crime. In a national statement, Her Excellency Ève Bazaiba Masudi, State Minister and Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, announced the DRC’s official submission of a motion calling for ecocide to be treated as a serious environmental crime. Highlighting decades of armed conflict and environmental degradation, she emphasised that such crimes affect entire communities. The DRC was the first African country to endorse the international campaign to criminalise ecocide at the ICC and continues to lead global and regional dialogue on the issue. Watch the statement here.
October 2024 - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
DRC became first African nation to formally endorse the creation of an international crime of ecocide, following September 2024 proposal from Pacific nations to add ecocide to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.