THE CAMPAIGN
Jojo Mehta believes making ecocide a prosecutable crime is essential for tackling climate change and holding the world’s biggest polluters to account.
The Stop Ecocide International executive director says without the power to hold corporations to account at the highest legal level, such as in the International Criminal Court (ICC), targets set by the Paris Agreement may remain out of our reach.
“We really have a single goal which is to make ecocide an international crime, ideally within five years,” she explained.
In June, legal experts came together to write an historic definition of ecocide, which it is hoped will be adopted by the ICC and therefore the criminal justice systems of its 123 member states. The draft law states ecocide is “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment caused by those acts”.
If added to the Rome Statute of the ICC, ecocide will sit alongside the court’s four current prosecutable offences: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
Mehta said: “Creating an international crime of ecocide is a relatively achievable solution. It’s deceptively simple and a strategic intervention as we believe that, without some kind of enforceable deterrent, it’s going to be very difficult to actually approach Paris climate targets or sustainable development goals.
“At the moment there’s
The consequences of ecocide are at least as deadly as those of genocide Campaigner Jojo Mehta
a level of impunity around serious environmental harms, so key decisionmakers need to be held to account at a legal level, and that’s what an international crime can do.
“Bringing in a criminal law at that top level achieves a number of things. Firstly, it’s a way of creating a law across borders, and that’s important as big transnational corporations, currently, have the ability to almost hop jurisdictions.
“Having something that can apply similarly, with a similar definition across borders, is important. Secondly, there’s a cultural and moral aspect. Part of the reason that we don’t treat nature in the same way is a legacy of the mindset of separation and domination. We are intertwined with the natural systems around us and without healthy ecosystems, there’s no healthy humans.”
The Stop Ecocide International campaign continues to grow, with interest shown in dozens
of countries, including Scotland, France and Spain.
Last week, Mehta and Philippe Sands QC, chair of the expert panel which drafted the legal definition of ecocide, briefed a group of MSPs and legal advisers.
Cop26, to be held in Glasgow this November, could be a defining moment, said Mehta: “The hosting of Cop26 is really significant, and the UK is going to want this to be a success. There’s a shortage of really convincing solutions emerging. Ecocide could be one. The consequences of ecocide are at least as deadly as genocide if not more so.
“We’re not just talking about destroying part of a people, we’re looking at threatening the entirety of civilization as we know it. When you put it in that light, you can really see why it belongs among those most serious crimes.”