Stop Ecocide: Change the law - An Overview
The world is in climate and ecological crisis. And right now ECOCIDE (large-scale destruction of the natural living world) is legally permitted. Current regulations simply do not stop the harm.
We believe that the most effective way to turn the planetary ship around is to make ECOCIDE an international crime - and we are already partway down the road to making this happen.
Our non-profit Ecological Defence Integrity, founded in 2017 by UK barrister the late Polly Higgins and environmental campaigner Jojo Mehta, is working on adding Ecocide to the list of crimes prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC), to sit alongside War Crimes, Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and - more recently - Crimes of Aggression.
Our work has two key elements:
Diplomatic/legal - our international team is already working with small, climate-vulnerable states which have the power to propose an Ecocide amendment at the ICC. The ICC’s annual conference in The Hague in December is the key forum for advancing this work. We have accompanied Pacific island representatives and enabled their voices and concerns to be heard there for 3 consecutive years, as the nations most impacted by climate emergency. This year we are taking four Island States with us.
Campaigning - our public-facing STOP ECOCIDE CAMPAIGN is both funding this work and raising global awareness of ecocide crime as a concrete solution capable of addressing our global crisis.
Supporters declare themselves Earth Protectors, providing visible support for the campaign and for Small Island Developing States (Global South) progressing a law of ecocide, and contributing into a fund to support legal, diplomatic and practical assistance for those states.
Who are we?
We have a core team of lawyers, academics, researchers and diplomatic contacts working with Pacific island states towards proposing a crime of ecocide at the ICC.
We have a second growing team of campaign and outreach staff taking forward the Stop Ecocide campaign internationally, supported by a team of volunteers.
Contact: PRESS & PR
press@stopecocide.earth
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About Stop Ecocide
Stop Ecocide is a public-facing campaign managed by Ecological Defence Integrity Ltd (EDI), a UK non-profit incorporated in 2017 for the purpose of forwarding an international law of ecocide.
Further legal and historical information can be found at www.ecocidelaw.com
Recent coverage:
CBC Radio (from 1min50in)
BBC World Service (between 8.50-13.08 mins)