UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk: Ecocide as international crime

During the Side event "A Fifth Crime of Ecocide" at the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court , the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk demands the Assembly to recognise ecocide as an international crime as a measure of contrasting the environmental destruction and guaranteeing social justice.

In his speech, the High Commissioner stresses how such acts like the contamination of water, destruction of forests and ecosystems, eradication of biodiversity, unsustainable, harmful extraction practices happen not only in times of conflict and war but also in peacetime driven by business interests, by desire for profit or by corruption, or even intentionally to harm communities.

Environmental harm doesn’t impact only our planet, but is also tightly connected with social inequality. It deprives people from their human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment – clean air, safe water, adequate food, a safe and stable climate, a non-toxic environment, and healthy biodiversity that leads to violence, social tensions, poverty and displacement.

Hence, we have to take the fundamental step of recognising the crime of ecocide. By doing so, the already existing legal frameworks at both international and national levels will be complemented and it will facilitate the prosecution of those who are responsible for its contamination and destruction and assure the human rights to access justice and effective financial compensation, environmental remediation, rehabilitation, and satisfaction. 
Eventually, beyond criminal accountability, recognition of ecocide could serve to raise awareness of the gravity of the environmental collapse and consequently preventing it from happening in future whether by States, businesses or individuals, and in guaranteeing justice and reparation for those who are affected.