In December, Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) published “Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage through the Rome Statute”. The document stressed that the natural environment sustains all life, human and non-human alike. Its destruction and degradation often bring untold suffering, displacing communities, eroding cultures, and threatening human survival itself. Yet the burden is not borne equally.
ICC Policy adds that environmental damage strikes hardest at the poor and marginalised, those with the fewest resources to adapt or escape, including Indigenous Peoples, women, children, and peasants. For them, environmental destruction often means the loss of health, livelihoods, and dignity, compounding cycles of inequality and injustice across generations.
This Policy and its preparation reflect the Office’s recognition of the increasingly urgent need for a comprehensive global effort to combat environmental degradation and its consequences and to seek environmental justice. Through this Policy, the Office intends to ensure that it plays its due role in contributing to those efforts, thus working to ensuring the continued relevance of the ICC.
ICC Policy stressed that conflicts throughout the world, including in ICC situation countries such as Ukraine, indicate that conflicts involving Rome Statute crimes are often motivated by competition over natural resources, such as land, water, and minerals, and routinely result in serious environmental damage. The document refers to Office’s collaboration with authorities from national jurisdictions in the context of its investigations in Ukraine.
Let us remind that the Office of the Prosecutor commenced in February, 2024 a process for a comprehensive policy paper on environmental crimes, aiming to ensure that it takes a systematic approach to dealing with crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction committed by means of, or that result in, environmental damage.
After this announcement, our Association submitted to the ICC its own observations and ARC’s expert publications, prepared by Borys Babin and Olexiy Plotnikov, with examples of the international crimes against the environment, committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including Crimea. Our cooperation with the ICC on the investigation of those crimes, including aspects of their qualification, will be continued.
