A Legal Renaissance: How Ecocide Law and Nature’s Rights Can Transform Society
By Clara Tomé (GARN Youth Hub) and Bonifacius Tirto Dwilaksono (Youth for Ecocide Law)
Who are environmental laws actually protecting?
You don’t need to be a legal expert to realise that, in practice, the law primarily protects power, not nature. Indeed, our legal systems overwhelmingly regulate how much of nature we can legally extract and destroy, placing the pursuit of profit and short-term gain at the heart of legal protection.
This system, based on human interests, has deep philosophical roots. From Cartesian dualism, which separated humans from nature, to Enlightenment-era legal frameworks, which reinforced the idea of nature as mere property, our legal systems have long prioritised human economic activity over ecological well-being.
This is why we need systemic change. We need to redefine environmental law—not just its rules, but the very subject of the protection that it provides. Our current legal frameworks not only continue to treat nature as an object at our disposal, but also fail to address the scale of the planetary crisis we are facing.
What would this new legal paradigm look like? We believe that a partnership between two overlapping legal movements - ecocide law and the rights of nature - could challenge the status quo and act on behalf of ecosystems, whether forests, rivers, or even entire species.
What is Ecocide Law?
Ecocide law criminalises the worst harms to nature, aiming to deter mass damage and destruction of ecosystems. It has been defined as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts".
Youth for Ecocide Law (Y4EL) advocates for the criminalisation of ecocide in both national and international legal frameworks, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Y4EL believes that the international criminalisation of ecocide would send a powerful message that severe harm to nature is morally and legally unacceptable.
Ecocide law is intended to target decision-makers at the top level, such as ministers of state or the CEOs of corporations, who are responsible for ecocide, rather than ordinary citizens. The intention behind ecocide law, like all criminal law, is the deterrence impact of introducing individual accountability, not punishment.
What Are Rights of Nature?
The rights of nature movement, deeply rooted in Indigenous wisdom and earth jurisprudence, challenges the long-standing doctrine that nature is property. It seeks to grant legal personhood to ecosystems, recognising their inherent rights. Nature rights have gained significant traction, for example with the granting of rights to the Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Mar Menor in Spain.
However, without enforcement mechanisms, recognition alone can fall short. This is where ecocide as an international crime can be a crucial ally. Despite the significant traction that the rights of nature movement has experienced in several jurisdictions, these rights need to be enforceable. We need to hold individuals directly accountable by introducing criminal liability with the prospect of severe consequences such as prison sentences for violations. This will ensure that those responsible for environmental harm cannot hide behind the limited liability of corporations or the impunity that comes with being part of a government
How does the youth movement for Ecocide Law intersect with the Rights of Nature movement?
● Recognising the need to transform the current anthropocentric paradigm. GARN Youth Hub's declaration aims to shift this paradigm so humans exist in harmony with the Earth community. Y4EL advocates for legal guardrails to hold decision-makers accountable for environmental harm.
● Recognising the importance of legal and systemic change. Y4EL campaigns to make ecocide an international crime, whilst GARN Youth Hub supports the recognition of the Rights of Nature within international institutions and conventions.
● Urging action from international bodies. The GARN Youth Hub urges the IUCN to implement commitments to the Rights of Nature, whilst Y4EL works towards amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
● Framing arguments around intergenerational equity and justice is a key part of both Y4EL and GARN Youth Hub’s work.
More than just complementary, these two movements are mutually necessary. Think of it like this - if rights of nature is the heart, giving life to a new legal system, then ecocide is the bloodstream. This ensures that accountability circulates through a more balanced legal system, making the whole system functional in practice.
We are excited to announce the partnership between Y4EL and the GARN. As the world prepares for COP30, this collaboration aims to amplify the voices of young environmental leaders to foster the adoption of transformative environmental law. And as Polly Higgins, the late barrister and Co-Founder of Stop Ecocide International said: “ I know it may not yet look like it, but we are sowing the seeds of greatness for countless generations to come. That is the great work of our times, yours and mine.”