In run-up to elections, Flemish and Walloon political parties have been surveyed on a host of issues. The survey, conducted by a coalition of Belgian environmental organisations, included a question about support for amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include a new crime of ecocide.

The European Council has formally adopted a new environmental crime directive, which includes provision to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’.

The city of Utrecht, represented by Alderman Linda Voortman, signed the Stop Ecocide NL Manifesto, which calls upon the Dutch government to support the recognition of ecocide as a crime at the international, European, and national levels.

The Joint Global Statement of Major Groups and Stakeholders (Joint Global Statement), presented at the Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6), stated that working 'towards the universal recognition of ecocide as an international crime' would serve as a 'powerful deterrent' against the most severe environmental harms.

On February 20, 2024, a group of Finnish Green MPs, including former Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo, submitted a formal written question to the government, inquiring about the administration's intentions to promote the establishment of a new standalone international crime of ecocide via the International Criminal Court.

Prominent members of the international legal community, politicians, academics, businesses and NGOs have responded to a public consultation held by the office of the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, calling for a new crime of ecocide to be introduced into the Rome Statute.

Launched at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, the Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth charter, has been drafted by leading Islamic eco-theologians and practitioners from around the world. The charter creates a comprehensive Islamic framework on ecological and moral responsibility, urging collective action for the protection of our planet and states: “The enormity of the crime of ecocide – the extirpation of entire ecosystems, communities of species, including our own – can best be appreciated by considering the horrors of genocide – the extirpation of ethnicities and cultures. […] This kind of corruption in the Earth has yet to be recognised, litigated, and penalised in national and international legislation.”

The European Parliament has today voted through a new environmental crime directive, which includes provision to criminalise cases ‘comparable to ecocide’. The European Parliament, along with the Parliament’s rapporteur on the directive, Netherlands MEP Antonius Manders, have been at the centre of efforts to secure new EU legislation aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe environmental harms since it announced its support for the inclusion of “ecocide” in the new directive in March 2023. To complete its legislative journey, the new directive will be subject to a vote by the European Council, scheduled to take place March 2024.

Belgium’s Federal Parliament has today voted in favour of a new penal code for the country, which, for the first time in Europe, includes recognition of the crime of ecocide at both the national and international levels. Nationally, the new crime of ecocide, aimed at preventing and punishing the most severe cases of environmentaldegradation, such as extensive oil spills, will apply to individuals in the highest positions of decision-making power and to corporations.

A new report, ‘The Environmental Compact for Ukraine’, has been published by the country’s High-Level Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War. The report highlights the presence of the crime of “ecocide” in Ukraine’s penal code (Article 441), notes the recent increase in the incorporation of the crime into domestic legislation across the globe and makes special reference to the Independent Expert Panel’s 2021 definition of ecocide. 

On Thursday 18 January, representations to the Catalan Parliament were heard from NGOs, community groups and experts on a bill to incorporate the crime of ecocide into the national Penal Code of Spain.  

Stop Ecocide International CEO Jojo Mehta attended the World Economic Forum in Davos between 15th - 19th January 2024. Jojo spoke at two events: ‘Where Nature Meets Conflict’, live-streamed on Tuesday 16th January and ‘Law and Litigation for Climate and Nature’ on Thursday 18th January and a clip of Jojo’s contribution to the live-streamed event on the 16th was virally misreported, including by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Donald Trump Jr and Fox News.