Ecocide law protecting the future of life on Earth
[Music]
exactly
two years ago today my dearest friend
and closest colleague
was diagnosed with an aggressive lung
cancer which was spreading rapidly
by the time they discovered it she was
already beyond medical help
of the six weeks they predicted she
survived just a month
passing away on easter day 2019.
i loved her she was glamorous and
charming
sharp as attack and generous to a fault
she was also a pioneer and a visionary
but
never in a remote kind of way she was
warm
and engaging with a mischievous sense of
humor
and a remarkable talent for making you
feel like you were the most
important person in the world when she
was speaking with you
i’ve lost count of the number of people
men and women
who’ve told me they fell in love with
her or that a conversation with her
turned their lives around
and working with her was a combination
of enormous fun
deadly seriousness and unpredictable
adventure
and she left me a rather unusual legacy
her name was polly higgins and she was a
lawyer
having given up a lucrative career in
the courtroom
she dedicated the last 10 years of her
life four and a half of which i spent
working closely with her
to just one thing putting in place
a law to protect the earth
together we co-founded a campaign in
2017
and it is this campaign that i inherited
from her when she died it’s a campaign
you may not have heard of
but it’s based on a single simple idea
an idea that has the power to turn the
entire planetary ship around
the concept is this make ecocide
an international crime
what do we mean by ecocide quite simply
the destruction of ecosystems just as
homicide is killing a person
or genocide is destroying a people
ecocide of all kinds has been committed
repeatedly and relentlessly
over many decades by some of the world’s
biggest corporations
leading inexorably to the global climate
and ecological emergency
in which we find ourselves ecocide is in
fact
a root cause of the existential crisis
humanity is now facing
and right now unlike genocide
it is still for the most part permitted
by law
we all know you can’t go to a government
and get a permit to slaughter people for
your new business
killing people is criminal but you can
get a permit to open a mine
or to frack for oil and gas or to engage
in industrial fishing
of the kind that destroys entire swathes
of the seabed
you can destroy soil ecosystems and
insect ecosystems with toxic pesticides
you can chop and burn down rainforest
with impunity
there’s a little story that explains
this rather clearly
about a decade ago the head of a major
uk bank
was asked in a meeting why is it that
you continue to finance these
destructive activities
his response well it’s not a crime
clearly it’s time to change the rules
now in our western dominant culture we
draw the moral line
using criminal law and it is criminal
law that is missing with regard to
ecocide
there are thousands of environmental
regulations around the world
already in place but corporations
tend to treat them as complications to
be worked around
they might adjust their budgeting for a
new regulation to accommodate more court
cases or compensation claims
but they don’t change their behavior why
because it’s easier and more profitable
not to
there is currently no enforceable
deterrent in place
to prevent mass damage and destruction
of ecosystems
destruction of nature
but there can be and it’s actually quite
simple
almost laughably so make ecocide a crime
creating personal
individual criminal responsibility for
key decision makers
no ceo wants to be seen or prosecuted as
a criminal
it’s really bad for your share price
banks cannot finance criminal activity
insurers can’t underwrite it
government ministers can’t issue permits
for it
so how can this be done there
is a straightforward effective way to
make ecocide
a crime on a global scale and that is by
amending
the rome statute of the international
criminal court
or icc for short now the icc is really
interesting
because of how it works it’s the only
global mechanism
that directly accesses the already
existing criminal justice systems of all
its member states
so if you make something a crime at the
icc any member state ratifying that
crime
must also include it in their own
domestic legislation
this makes it the most efficient way to
create a coherent law across borders
and that’s fundamentally important with
environmental crimes
because the worst offenders are huge
transnational corporations
the rome statute of the international
criminal court governs
and i quote the most serious crimes of
concern
to the international community as a
whole
currently these are genocide crimes
against humanity
war crimes and more recently added the
crime of aggression
now we know because now we can plainly
see
that there are in reality deeply serious
consequences
to destroying ecosystems we’re seeing
these consequences playing out in ever
more apocalyptic ways
fires floods droughts
hurricanes poisoned water
depleted soils contaminated air
multiple crises that are leading us and
in some cases taking us already over
tipping points that threaten the entire
existence of human civilization as we
know it
while extinguishing species at an
unprecedented rate
so in reality ecocide already is
a crime of most serious concern to the
international community as a whole
it simply isn’t listed on that statute
not yet but i’ll tell you something
exciting and it’s this
the amendment process for the rome
statute
is actually quite simple any member
state can propose it
a simple majority can put it on the
table for discussion
for adoption into the statute two-thirds
of member states must agree to the
amendment
now the icc is a one-state one-vote
forum
like the united nations but unlike the
un there is no security council
no state has the power to veto an
amendment
so once it’s on the table it’s simply a
matter of time
to accumulate the collective support
once it’s on the table the writing is on
the wall
and the process of amendment itself
creates
a kind of compliance period
so the law may not yet be in place but
we can all see it coming
investors insurers ceos and policy
makers all know
that drastic changes are required if
humanity is to thrive into the future
ecocide law is the simple course
correction
that can support those changes
it can level the corporate playing field
enabling the many solutions that are out
there
from regenerative farming to renewable
energy to circular economy
to truly begin to engage while giving
bad actors the guard rail they need
to guide them back towards safe
practices
and as every entrepreneur knows there is
nothing like a clear parameter
for unleashing innovation and creativity
all of this my dear friend polly higgins
saw clearly
and the campaign we started together
stop ecoside international
focuses exclusively on helping to make
this happen
it’s a funny thing when polly was
diagnosed with terminal cancer
we received many hundreds of messages
often sad and shocked and wondering what
would happen to the work if she died
would it die with her but in fact
when it came to it the reality was quite
the reverse
because when polly departed i started to
receive a new kind of message
how can we help you make sure
this happens people started stepping up
in support and it
is happening over the last two years
i’ve realized and discovered just how
many dots
were waiting to be joined with campaigns
elsewhere
with international criminal lawyers with
politicians
diplomats faith leaders and influencers
in november 2019 pope francis called for
ecocide to be made an international
crime
the following month small island states
perhaps i should say great ocean states
vanuatu and the maldives
called on icc member states to seriously
consider amending the rome statute to
include ecocide
president macron of france and the new
belgium government have declared their
support
and parliamentary motions have been
submitted in sweden
in spain the government has been asked
by its foreign affairs committee
to examine legislating for ecocide
nationally and
internationally finland canada
and luxembourg have all expressed
interest and the eu
has voted to encourage its member states
to recognize ecocide
our foundation has now convened a panel
of top international criminal lawyers to
draft a robust
legal definition of ecocide that can be
considered for proposal at the icc by
interested states
and we’re already in dialogue with
parliamentarians from an additional 12
countries who are eagerly awaiting the
resulting definition
we have campaign teams and associate
groups in 14 countries
and websites in nine languages but
ultimately
it’s about more than just our particular
campaign
it’s about a global conversation
and fundamentally it’s about a concept
this relatively new word ecocide
that encapsulates something the terrible
extent
of damage that we can all perceive to be
happening to the natural living world
all around us in many different ways
and the moment we understand the word we
intuitively know it to be both dangerous
and morally wrong
it is a small but essential step
to go from acknowledging that
understanding
to calling for it to be reflected in law
and together we can all take
that step and as every one of us
amplifies this conversation we actually
make
ecocide law inevitable we make it
inevitable
because it’s such a foundational and
obvious law
to put in place it protects everything
we love
everything we hold dear and everything
that sustains us
it protects the future of life on earth
thank you
you