Not Just a Slap on the Wrist
Faced with the reality of mass destruction of ecosystems - from the Tar Sands to the Amazon - the UN may soon add ecocide to the rap sheet of crimes against peace that can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The proposal is spearheaded by UK barrister and campaigner Polly Higgins and has support in the UN and the European Commission. If accepted by the UN Law Commission, the proposal will be submitted to the vote of the General Assembly, where it would need a two-thirds majority to pass.
In the stuffy corridors of international law, this truly revolutionary idea brings much-needed fresh air. It promises to reconfigure the complex edifice of international justice on the foundation of Earth Jurisprudence, an Earth-centred approach to law and governance which acknowledges the biosphere as a whole as the source of rights.
The campaign to criminalize the wholesale destruction of ecosystems is based on the insight that such practices are equally destructive to the well-being and survival of human society. Specifically, Higgins makes compelling connections between over-exploitation of resources and war. The new offence of ecocide would flow from each person's "duty of care" for the planet.
Watch the video about ecocide and Alberta's tar sands.
It is barely over a hundred years since nations first attempted to codify species-wide rules that would prevent the worst abuses in times of war and peace, with the The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The first trials for war crimes took place in 1945/46 after World War II.
Since then, we've seen many atrocities committed against civilians, not to mention ecosystems. International law may grind slowly, but it grinds exceedlingly small. Most importantly, it plays a crucial role in raising the moral consciousness of humanity. President Bush did everything he could to argue his way out of the Geneva Conventions; but if the Convention hadn't been there as a recognisable moral standard, how many people would know or care about torture and extraordinary rendition?
Take another contemporary example: rape as a war crime. Large-scale rape is often used as a deliberate weapon of war because warlords know that it is a fast and effective way to destroy the fabric of communities by striking at the heart of the family unit. When the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia began prosecuting for rape as a war crime and/or crime against humanity this had an immediate and observable effect on the victims and their communities. Acknowledging the "deliberate policy" element of the offence helped lift the burden of shame and self-blame from the victims, a source of tremendous suffering that was holding back the community as a whole from being able to heal and move forward.
To make large-scale destruction of ecosystems an international crime is not just about crime and punishment. It will help shape consciousness and behaviour by sending a clear message that international community - we the people - care about ecosystems as we do about torture or murder of our fellow humans.
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all" (Longfellow)
By Ana Simeon
Ana Simeon worked for the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague from 1997 to 2003.
