french government betrays demands of citizens’ assembly
French government betrays demands of citizens’ assembly with weak use of the term “ecocide”
In an unexpected move, the French government announced yesterday the creation of a new crime of “ecocide” which appears to be little more than a stronger enforcement of environmental obligations under existing law. The claim of government ministers is that this is an adequate response to proposals submitted by the Citizens’ Climate Assembly (Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat) earlier this year.
This use of the term doesn’t come close to what President Macron implied in his supporting statement in June when he promised to champion recognition of ecocide at the international level, and nor does it address the broader framework of planetary boundaries as strongly urged by the Convention.
Stop Ecocide Foundation’s advisory board member Valérie Cabanes, also a member of the recently convened Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, was due to discuss today the developments on including ecocide in the French penal code, along with representatives from the government and the CCC. She was incensed at yesterday’s pre-emptive announcement.
“I am deeply disappointed with the French government's announcement concerning an ‘ecocide’ law. This crime against planetary safety, recognition of which was requested by the Citizens’ Climate Assembly in terms which echo the campaign led by the Stop Ecocide Foundation, has been relegated to the status of existing environmental crimes.
“Ecocide crimes should refer to acts on the scale of crimes against humanity or genocide, because the destruction of the Earth's ecological balance threatens the very survival of all populations, human and non-human. The French government has done well by finally complying with the 2008 European Union directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law. However under no circumstances is it recognising here a new crime against peace and human security that would allow it to embark on a responsible path to protecting the planet's major ecosystems.
“To use the term ‘ecocide’ while emptying it of substance is a nasty trick to play on citizens, giving them the illusion that they have got what they wanted.”
Jojo Mehta, Chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation, is in agreement: “We have just convened a world-class legal drafting panel of international criminal lawyers and judges to address the definition of ‘ecocide’ as an international crime for potential addition to the Rome Statute. It is intended to address the worst excesses of environmental damage and destruction: acts which threaten the ecosystems on which humanity and life on Earth depend.
“While of course any enforcement of environmental laws is welcome, this proposed use of ‘ecocide’ by the French government is certainly not going to do that job, nor is it going to encourage offenders to take the term seriously. Indeed, it doesn’t reflect what President Macron himself described when he asserted before the Citizens Climate Assembly in the summer that we need ‘to ensure that this term is enshrined in international law so that leaders … are accountable before the International Criminal Court.’ Clamping down on a few pollution offences and imposing fines is hardly on this scale.
“That said, the French government is among the first to be seriously discussing the term, and we congratulate it on doing so. We trust there will be plenty of French interest in the report of the Independent Drafting Panel when it emerges with a robust legal definition of ‘ecocide’ in a few months’ time.”