‘Ecocide’: How international law falls short in addressing the environmental toll of war

International legal advocates and states are campaigning to add "ecocide" as a fifth core crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (I...

What Happened

International legal advocates and states are campaigning to add "ecocide" as a fifth core crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
In June 2021, an Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation presented a formal legal definition of ecocide: "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts."
The Ukraine-Russia conflict has intensified calls for ecocide criminalisation, with documented damage of over $56.4 billion to Ukraine's environment including the June 2023 destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
Existing international law, including the Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute, and the ENMOD Convention, provides insufficient coverage of environmental harm during armed conflict, leaving a significant legal gap.

Static Topic Bridges

The Rome Statute and the ICC's Four Core Crimes

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), adopted in 1998 and entering into force on 1 July 2002, establishes four core international crimes over which the Court has jurisdiction.

Genocide (Article 6): Acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group
Crimes against humanity (Article 7): Widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations
War crimes (Article 8): Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and laws of armed conflict, including Article 8(2)(b)(iv) which prohibits attacks knowing they will cause widespread, long-term and severe environmental damage
Crime of aggression (Article 8 bis): Added via the Kampala Amendments in 2010, entered into force 2018
The Rome Statute has 124 State Parties; India, the US, China, and Russia are not signatories

Connection to this news: Proponents seek to add ecocide as a new "Article 8 ter" — a fifth crime — to the Rome Statute, which would allow the ICC to prosecute individuals for causing severe environmental destruction, whether in peacetime or wartime.

The 2021 Legal Definition of Ecocide

In June 2021, the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation, proposed a formal legal definition intended to serve as a basis for amending the Rome Statute.

Panel comprised 12 international legal experts with backgrounds in criminal law, environmental law, and climate law
Proposed definition: "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment"
The definition is explicitly ecocentric — focused on protecting the environment itself, not merely humans affected by environmental harm (unlike the other four Rome Statute crimes, which are anthropocentric)
Unlike existing war crime provisions (Article 8), this definition extends protection to peacetime activities such as industrial pollution, deforestation, and fossil fuel extraction
Vanuatu and the Maldives first called for the addition of ecocide to the Rome Statute at the 18th session of the Assembly of States Parties in December 2019

Connection to this news: The 2021 definition is the foundational legal text driving the campaign — it deliberately broadens the scope of existing war crime provisions to cover both peacetime and wartime environmental destruction.

Geneva Conventions and Environmental Protection in Armed Conflict

The 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols contain specific but limited provisions protecting the natural environment during armed conflict.

Protocol I (1977), Articles 35 and 55: Prohibit methods and means of warfare that are "intended or may be expected to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment" — a three-part cumulative threshold that is extremely difficult to meet in practice
The Kakhovka Dam destruction (June 2023): The European Parliament condemned it as a war crime; attribution and prosecution remain legally complex under existing frameworks
ENMOD Convention (1977): The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques bars hostile use of environmental modification; both Russia and Ukraine are State Parties, but enforcement is weak
Customary International Humanitarian Law: Rule 44 of the ICRC Customary IHL Study prohibits methods of warfare expected to cause widespread, long-term and severe environmental damage

Connection to this news: The high evidentiary threshold in Protocol I — "widespread, long-term AND severe" (all three) — means prosecutions for environmental war crimes are virtually impossible under current law, which is precisely the gap the ecocide amendment seeks to fill.

Ukraine-Russia War and the Ecocide Case Study

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the conflict has produced some of the most significant documented cases of wartime environmental destruction in recent decades.

Total documented environmental damage: over $56.4 billion (European Parliament estimate, 2023)
Kakhovka Dam destruction (June 2023): Catastrophic flooding across southern Ukraine, displacement of tens of thousands, destruction of wetland ecosystems and agricultural zones in the Kherson region; the European Parliament condemned this as a war crime
Air, water, land, and soil pollution documented across thousands of sites
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: Europe's largest nuclear facility has faced repeated security threats; a radiological accident would constitute a catastrophic environmental event
Ukraine has formally appealed to international bodies characterising Russian actions as ecocide

Connection to this news: The Ukraine conflict has transformed the academic and advocacy debate on ecocide into a politically urgent one, demonstrating in real time how existing international law fails to address large-scale wartime environmental destruction.

Domestic Ecocide Laws — A Growing Trend

While international ecocide law is still developing, several countries have already criminalised ecocide at the domestic level.

Russia paradoxically included ecocide in its Criminal Code (Article 358) in 1996 — one of the first countries to do so
Ukraine also has domestic ecocide provisions
France criminalised ecocide in 2021 under its Climate and Resilience Law (though critics consider the threshold weak)
Belgium, Mexico, and several Pacific Island nations are at various stages of introducing ecocide legislation
The European Union's revised Environmental Crime Directive (2024) introduced "qualified offences" approximating ecocide for severe environmental damage within the EU

Connection to this news: The proliferation of domestic ecocide laws demonstrates growing normative consensus that the concept is legally viable — strengthening the political case for a Rome Statute amendment.

Key Facts & Data

Rome Statute adoption: 17 July 1998; entered into force: 1 July 2002
Current ICC core crimes: 4 — genocide (Art. 6), crimes against humanity (Art. 7), war crimes (Art. 8), crime of aggression (Art. 8 bis)
Proposed ecocide article: Article 8 ter
2021 ecocide definition: Proposed by 12-member Independent Expert Panel, June 2021
States first proposing amendment: Vanuatu and Maldives (December 2019, 18th Assembly of States Parties)
Geneva Conventions Protocol I (1977): Articles 35 and 55 — environmental protection in warfare
ENMOD Convention: 1977; prohibits hostile environmental modification techniques
Rome Statute non-signatories: India, USA, China, Russia
Ukraine environmental damage: Over $56.4 billion documented since February 2022
Kakhovka Dam: Destroyed June 2023; condemned by European Parliament as a war crime
Domestic ecocide laws: Russia (1996), Ukraine, France (2021), and others
ICC jurisdiction: Applicable only to nationals of State Parties or crimes committed on State Party territory