Ecocide: The Missing Convention
![handle is hein.journals/ijlmhs17 and id is 445 raw text is: International Journal of Law Management & Humanities
Ecocide: The Missing Convention
DHIRENDRA SINGH YADAVI
ABSTRACT
Through centuries of continuous exploitation and damage to the environment, humans have
degraded the resources for their own survival. Climate change and the extinction of several
species are the outcomes of the long-term destruction of the environment. Still, big
corporations and many states are ignoring this fact and damaging the environment for
their own profit. For decades, various legal experts, environmentalists, and philanthropists
have been working on criminalising ecocide and adding it as the fifth international crime
to the Rome Statute. For the better implementation of this right, we need a law that
criminalises that crime against the environment at a global level. Many countries have
included crimes against the environment in their national penal codes. But we need a
convention that harmonises the laws in the area of criminalising ecocide at a global level.
This research paper is divided into four parts. The first part focuses on the evolution and
conceptual understanding of the term ecocide. The second part will deal with the
legislative framework at the domestic and international stage. The third part will include
the implication of ecocide in various states and case studies related to it. The last part will
conclude with an analysis of the situation based on the criminalisation of ecocide and why
there is a need for the convention on ecocide.
I. INTRODUCTION
The continuous destruction of environment done by the corporates and states shows the
incompetency of the present environmental laws. Due to this many environment activists and
law expert has come together in a movement to add ecocide as the 5th crime against peace in
the Rome Statue. They are trying to change the perspective of the people to see nature as the
partner in building a sustainable society. The discouraging diplomatic support and lack of
enforcement in policies function as a barrier, but the spirit of youth leaders and changing
environmental goals, may be able to promote the prevention of crimes against nature to an
internationally recognised standard.2
Humanity is at a crucial stage in its evolution. Until recently, vested interests would have
widely condemned and ridiculed such a viewpoint. According to a research study of scientific
1 Author is a Student at Lovely Professional University, India.
2 Femke Wijdekop, Against Ecocide: Legal Protection for Earth, G.T.I, 1 (2016),
http://www.greattransition.org/publication/against-ecocide.
© 2022. International Journal of Law Management & Humanities [ISSN 2581-5369]
445
[Vol. 5 Iss 3; 445]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ijlmhs17&div=36&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Ecocide: The Missing Convention
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most