Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has voted in favour of including ecocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
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”Severe destruction or deterioration of nature that could be qualified as ecocide may occur in times of peace or war. It is necessary to codify this notion in both national legislation, as appropriate, and international law. The Assembly therefore strongly supports efforts to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so as to add ecocide as a new crime. It reiterates its call, contained in Resolution 2398 (2021) “Addressing issues of criminal and civil liability in the context of climate change”, as regards the need for “recognising universal jurisdiction for ecocide and the most serious environmental crimes” and introducing “the crime of ecocide into […] national criminal legislation”.”

Council of Europe, resolution 2477 (2023), 7.

 

The Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government will be held in Reykjavík, Iceland, 16–17 May 2023. Iceland chairs the meeting. It is hoped that further steps towards encoding ecocide in EU law will be taken then.

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