Right Livelihood Award laureates call for ecocide law

57 laureates of the Right Livelihood award (often considered the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) have sent a message to UN Stockholm+50 international environmental meeting urging “acknowledgement of ecocide as a crime”.

Dozens of laureates of the Right Livelihood award, including household names such as David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva and Greta Thunberg, have signed a message to governments calling on them to:“enhance the concepts of Rights of Nature and Earth Trusteeship in our relationship with the earth and in our political and legal systems: This includes acknowledging earth systems as living systems, ‘ecocide’ as a crime against humanity, and the Rights of Nature as relevant and binding on governments”

This was one of a list of 8 demands including ending the fossil fuel economy, redirecting military budgets towards human security, supporting local food production and regenerative agriculture and ensuring fair representation in policy-making.  

The list was premised on this concise statement:

“Planet Earth is facing existential threats from human impact on the land, sea and air – on its ecological systems and its many forms of life.

Stockholm+50 and COP 27 provide opportunities for us to make the collective changes necessary to prevent a catastrophic collapse of one or more ecological systems which could end civilisation as we know it - and to instead adopt policies to protect the future for all life.

It’s time to end the excuses for inaction and minimal stop-gap measures, and to instead make the real changes required.”

View the full statement here.

Swedish press coverage here.