Ecocide bill introduced to Italian parliament

Summary:

• Italy’s Green and Left Alliance (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra) has proposed a bill to criminalise "ecocide", with suggested penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment and provisions for the protection of those reporting such crimes.

• The new law, proposed by the bill’s primary sponsor, MP Filiberto Zaratti, Party Spokesperson Angelo Bonelli, and National Party Secretary Nicola Fratoianni, uses a definition of ecocide based on that of the 2021 Independent Expert Panel of international legal experts convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation.

• The proposed bill comes in the wake of the EU's revised Environmental Crimes Directive, which now includes offences comparable to ecocide. This directive mandates all EU member states to align their domestic legislation with these new standards within the next two years​

• To become law, the bill must next undergo parliamentary discussion and debate, committee review, be subjected to a vote in the Chamber of Deputies, Senate review and vote, and finally, receive presidential approval.

You can read the proposed bill in full here.