Jozette Khimba and Chloe Dyson

“Right now, ecocide (destroying the Earth) is legally permitted. Help us make it a crime”.

These are the words by Stop Ecocide, an organisation using climate activism, diplomacy, and crowdfunding to try and change the law to benefit our planet. Read about their inception, progress, and future goals below – and how you too can become an Earth Protector. Enjoy!

Our organisation is unique: it has one clear aim to see the creation of a Global Earth Law with the power to protect all life on the planet.

Currently, environmental regulation is only dealt with through civil courts. Civil law is mainly concerned with ownership rights and commerce, and requires a complainant to sue. Suing companies is difficult and expensive. Corporations simply budget for it and continue polluting; no single person or group is held directly accountable. However, under criminal law, individuals of superior responsibility can be prosecuted, creating a genuine deterrent to Ecocide – defined as the widespread and systematic ‘loss or damage to, or destruction of ecosystem(s) of a given territory(ies), such that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or will be severely diminished’.

“Ecocide is not just about CO2 emissions,” explains Jojo Mehta, who is the co-founder of Stop Ecocide. “It’s also about deforestation, biodiversity loss, water pollution, soil depletion, overfishing, industrial farming, oil spills. It criminalises any activity leading to widespread, long-term or severe loss, damage or destruction of ecosystems, including ways of life dependent on those ecosystems.  With this one simple legal change, serious harm to the Earth can be prevented.  When government ministers can no longer issue permits for it, when insurers can no longer underwrite it, when investors can no longer back it, when CEOs can be held criminally responsible for it, the harm will stop. Ecocide law is the missing piece to create climate and ecological justice.”

The highest international criminal law we have is the Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court (ICC) – it has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for:

1. Atrocity crimes of genocide

2. War crimes

3. Crimes of aggression

4. Crimes against humanity

Our aim is to get an amendment to the Rome Statute, so the International Law against Ecocide is added as the fifth crime against peace. Only by criminalising damage to the Earth’s ecosystems, can we stop the harm that is currently permitted by governments and companies seeking profits for their shareholders. Ecocide Law lays the foundation: first do no harm. By holding CEOs and government ministers to account the new law would stop money going to harmful industrial activities, and channel funds into cleaner, greener alternatives.

Our organisation was founded by Polly Higgins, who left a prestigious career in corporate law because she decided: ‘the Earth needed a good lawyer’. She has dedicated the last fourteen years of her life to getting an International Law against Ecocide in place. She recognised that the ICC could be used as a legal fast track to protect the Earth, its oceans and all its inhabitants. She believed that we all have a duty of care to safeguard the Earth, and protect its ecosystems for future generations.

Stop Ecocide has been working diplomatically with the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) for the past 3 years. Vanuatu is one of the Small Island States in the South Pacific who are on the frontline of the climate emergency, and currently experiencing dangerous rises in sea levels. They have publicly expressed an interest in carrying forward the Law of Ecocide and other Island States are showing a willingness to come on board. Any member state can ask for the Rome Statute to be amended to add the crime of Ecocide. When two thirds of member states signed up as signatories to the Rome Statute agree to the amendment, it cannot be vetoed – the law can be adopted and enforced by those who ratify (to enforce for all member states a 7/8 majority is required).

To progress the Law of Ecocide, the Earth Protectors Trust Fund has been set up. It is a global crowdfund that allows people to pledge their civil support to the creation of the law, endorsing the fact that change is needed at a fundamental level. By adding to the funds – from as little as £5 or more of they wish – they ensure that Vanuatu and other small island states have the legal expertise and practical support they need to get to the Hague and table the amendment.

When someone signs up as an Earth Protector, they become a Trustee of the Earth – clearly stating that they believe damage and destruction to the Earth and its oceans is a crime. They receive a legal document that recognises our human right to act according to our Freedom of Conscience (European Convention on Human Rights article 9). This document can be used in law courts as primary evidence to support activists who are taking peaceful direct action to stand up and protect the Earth.

This is a historic movement which has the capacity to shift the current trajectory of destruction and escalating ecological emergencies; to a future where restorative practices and regeneration allow ecosystems and humanity to flourish.

Becoming an Earth Protector to progress an International Law against Ecocide is the single most powerful gesture we can make right now. It lays the foundation for a new paradigm, based upon compassionate regard for All Life on Earth; where ecosystems are protected and we can begin to create what Charles Eisenstein calls ‘the more beautiful world that we know in our hearts is possible’.  

Sign up as an Earth Protector here.

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.

We are a rapidly growing organisation, whose numbers are set to rise exponentially. We recently launched the Earth Protector Town movement which is working in collaboration with local councils and communities to support our international strategy, and look at how we can act locally as if the Law of Ecocide was in place.

Find out more about Stop Ecocide on their Instagram @EcocideLaw and Twitter @EcocideLaw, and on their website.

This piece was written by two passionate campaigners and Earth Protectors: Jozette Khimba and Chloe Dyson.

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