The motion passed with a clear majority of votes cast by states and government agencies, and an overwhelming majority among NGOs and Indigenous Peoples organisations*.
Motion 061 called on states to recognise ecocide as a serious crime in national and international law and recommended that States Parties to the Rome Statute evaluate an amendment to make ecocide an explicit ICC crime in peacetime and during armed conflict. It also tasked IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law to produce practical guidance on the scope and application of prosecuting ecocide, including how prosecutions can support ecosystem restoration and safeguard geodiversity, with Council support and Director General dissemination to members no later than one year before the 2029 Congress. It commended states that have taken a leadership role on ecocide law and invited others to consider adopting domestic legislation.
The motion was co-sponsored by Vanuatu, which led the 2024 proposal to the International Criminal Court with Fiji and Samoa and is now backed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), alongside leading NGOs including The Wildlife Trusts, Born Free Foundation, Gallifrey Foundation, Earth League International, Earth Law Center, Synchronicity Earth, A Rocha Ghana, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association, The Conflict and Environment Observatory, Africa Institute for Energy Governance, Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand, Friendship Bangladesh, Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), Fundación Oxígeno, la Fundación Española para la Defensa del Patrimonio Geológico y Minero, SEBICOP (Sociedad Española de Biología de Conservación de las Plantas), Vitalis, Fundación Charles Darwin and Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano Ecuador, Pronaturaleza Peru, LIDEMA Bolivia, Fundación Hábitat y Desarrollo Argentina, Preserve Planet Costa Rica, ARPEMG Brazil, and Indigenous Peoples Organizations such as COICA (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica) and AIDESEP Peru.
The vote means IUCN, a globally influential body whose resolutions often shape national and international environmental policy, has formally called for recognition of ecocide as a serious crime under both national and international law.
Read Motion 061, “Recognising the crime of ecocide to protect nature”, here.
*In the states and government agencies chamber, 62% of eligible weighted votes were cast and 77% of those votes were in favour. In the NGO and Indigenous People’s organisations chamber, 85% of eligible weighted votes were cast and 93% of those votes were in favour.
Information courtesy of Stop Ecocide International.
