Criminalization of international environmental crimes

The fight to recognize environmental crime as international crime continues. After the death of cancer by Polly Higgins, a visionary Scottish female lawyer who fought for the type of crime that destroys the environment recognized as an ‘international crime,’ the war continues.
However, although Higgins’ job is groundbreaking, to this day there is no effective legal system that prevents individuals, companies or governments from harming the Earth and ecosystems. its for profit or power.

Ecocide is a crime The lack of punishment for these subjects indicates a major defect in the international legal system. Ecocide is defined as “the destruction of ecosystems, humanity and life”. This includes direct damage to land, sea, flora and fauna in affected ecosystems, as well as impacts to the climate. The negative effects of Ecocide are noted on many levels because the damage is not just the environment – it can be cultural, psychological as well as emotional. Communities are also affected, especially when their lifestyles are deeply linked with compromised ecosystems. The term “ecocide” was first recognized in 1970 at the Conference on War and National Responsibility in Washington, DC and since then, many scholars and legal experts. has campaigned to criminalize it. Promoting the recognition of ecocide as a crime on an international level is the first step towards establishing a legal obligation – not just morality – to all life forms on Earth. Writer and activist George Monbiot commented: “It will change everything. It can make the difference between a habitable planet and an uninhabitable one.” Around the world, frontline communities are fighting to protect their land, air, water, forests and means of livelihood. Resources are threatened by activities such as mining and deforestation, all of which have serious social and environmental impacts. There is also an occupation of land that is destroying the entire area. Usually all of this happens while the world is looking in the other direction. Campaigners are calling for the act of destroying nature as an international criminal offense. Ecocide is an idea that environmental activists consider both very extreme but also plausible. This theory holds that no one can be neglected or punished after destroying the natural environment. Many advocates of the criminalization of environmental destruction that will help emphasize the environmental and human costs of such problems as climate change. Responsibilities of the ICC Activists believe that this type of crime should be included in the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – the agency currently prosecutes only four types of crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression. Although the ICC can also prosecute environmental crimes, it has so far only been possible within the framework of the four crimes mentioned above – there is no legal restriction on losses occurring in time. jar. Although each country has its own laws and regulations to avoid loss, criminalization activists of environmental destruction believe that widespread environmental destruction will continue as long as the law is full. bridge is established. This is not going to be too light or deterrent because of international practice – like the Paris Agreement on climate change, where countries set their own goals to cut emissions. With the inclusion of a fifth offense – the crime of environmental destruction – in the Rome Convention, the perpetrator can be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. But it also helps to create cultural change in the way the world perceives actions that harm nature. “If something becomes a crime, we put it under the red line of morality. Now, you can still come,” said Jojo Mehta, co-founder of the Stop Ecocide campaign. government agencies and apply for a license to exploit shale oil using hydraulic technology to cut or mine, or drill for oil, while you cannot apply for a murder permit, because it is a crime. Once you put that standard into practice, you change the cultural mentality as well as the reality of law enforcement. Jojo Mehta argued that having an anti-environmental law would hold those who cause serious environmental harm to the environment. Activists believe that environmental destruction should only be considered for the most damaging activities on a large scale – such as causing oil spills, seabed extraction, animal ranching. industrial tissue and oil sand extraction. In 2010, female lawyer Polly Higgins defined environmental destruction as “causing serious harm … to the point that the peace of the creatures in the area has been or will be severely destroyed”. In 2019, Higgins died at the age of 50 after being diagnosed with cancer. It was the shock to the anti-environmentalism movement – she was a legal leader and avid campaigner, sold her house and quit her high-paying job and devoted her life to the campaign. this. Mehta’s advocacy group – Stop Ecocide – is in the process of bringing together a panel of international lawyers to write a “clear and legally strong” definition for crimes of destroying the environment to Countries can apply to the ICC. Once an official definition is in place, the next step is to have a country support it in The Hague court. For campaigners like Mehta, the criminalization of environmental destruction is a way to end the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems and destroy the organisms that live there.