Published by The Ecologist October 6, 2020
Belgium pledges diplomatic action to halt ecocide crime.
The coalition government in Brussels has at last reached its final form, following long deliberations – 493 days – since last year’s elections.
The new government has set out its programme for the next four years. Significant among their pledges is a strong move towards recognising a crime of ecocide both internationally and in domestic legislation.
Echoing the French president Emmanuel Macron’s declaration from June this year, the new government has pledged, concerning domestic law, that “experts will be called to advise on the inclusion of ecocide in the new penal code”. At the international level, the government has made a strong commitment to “research and take diplomatic initiatives aimed at halting the crime of ecocide, which is to say the conscious destruction of ecosystems”.
Protection
The pledges follow Green (Ecolo) MP Samuel Cogolati’s proposal in July that the government support the initiative of Vanuatu and the Maldives, which both called last year for serious consideration of amending the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute to include ecocide.
Cogolati is pleased with the government’s commitment, underlining the urgency of the global situation: “We must protect nature and future generations in much stronger, more enforceable ways… Because without water, without forests, without clean air, we cannot survive on Earth. The planet is our common home. It’s time for criminal law to urgently come to the rescue.”
Jojo Mehta, co-founder of Stop Ecocide International and chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation said: “This is hugely encouraging and timely news. States are realising that an enforceable deterrent against mass destruction of ecosystems is required, and supporting ecocide as an international crime would also add real weight to the Leaders Pledge for Nature signed by over 70 Heads of State earlier this week.”
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