The ICC proposal: What it would mean for business if ecocide becomes an international crime
Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and the DRC have formally proposed ecocide as a fifth crime at the International Criminal Court. If adopted, the implications for corporate governance would be unlike anything the business world has faced before.
The ICC and why it matters
The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals – not states and not corporations – for the most serious crimes known to international law: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. It is the court of last resort for the gravest offences, created to ensure that individuals in positions of power could be held personally accountable for catastrophic harm. The proposal to add ecocide as a fifth crime at the ICC is not a symbolic gesture. It is a proposal to place mass environmental destruction in the same moral and legal category as genocide. If it is adopted, the implications for corporate governance will be without precedent in the history of business regulation.
The formal proposal
In a formal submission to the ICC's Assembly of States Parties in late 2024, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa formally proposed the amendment to the Rome Statute. They have been joined by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo Basin Climate Commission, representing 17 states, has called for ecocide to be recognised as an international crime. The UN Secretary-General has described its inclusion as 'highly desirable.' The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that 'recognition of environmental crimes, including the crime of ecocide, by international, regional and domestic legal systems would strengthen accountability for environmental harms.' At least 24 ICC member states have been discussing it at parliamentary and government level.[1]
The legal process
The process for adding a fifth crime to the Rome Statute is demanding but has clear procedural steps. Any state party may propose an amendment. The proposal must be submitted at least three months before the General Assembly of States Parties, held each December in The Hague. A simple majority at that meeting enables the amendment to enter consideration. A Crime Review Conference may then be convened, or negotiation may proceed via formal and informal discussion. With the agreement of at least two-thirds of member states – currently 83 of 124 – the amendment is adopted into the Statute, following which ratification and enforcement can proceed. Once ratified by a state, the crime applies to conduct on that state's territory or by its nationals.[2]
The principle of complementarity means the ICC acts where national courts fail to do so – but its existence changes the calculus for national prosecutors regardless. The addition of ecocide to the Rome Statute would signal to every national legal system in the world that the international community regards mass environmental destruction as a category of wrongdoing that warrants the most serious available legal response. National prosecutors who might previously have treated environmental destruction as an administrative matter would face a different political and legal context.
Universal jurisdiction
Beyond the ICC itself, the Rome Statute framework includes universal jurisdiction principles. Under these principles, any ratifying nation may, on its own soil, arrest a non-national for ecocide committed elsewhere, as long as it considers the crime to be serious enough.[3] For executives of multinationals who travel regularly – to attend board meetings, investor days, conferences – this creates a practical exposure that extends well beyond the jurisdictions in which their companies operate. An executive responsible for authorising environmental destruction in a country with weak enforcement could theoretically be arrested in any ratifying state through which they transit.
The expert panel definition
The legal definition available for adoption was developed in June 2021 by the Independent Expert Panel convened by Stop Ecocide Foundation, co-chaired by Philippe Sands KC and Dior Fall Sow. The panel included some of the world's leading international criminal and environmental lawyers. The definition they developed – covering 'unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused' – has been widely accepted as the working definition in subsequent legislative and diplomatic discussions.[4]
'I'm absolutely convinced that this crime of ecocide will be adopted. The only issue is not whether, but when and in what form.' – Professor Philippe Sands KC
What ratification means for business
For the corporate world, the significance of an ICC ecocide amendment is less about the practical likelihood of a CEO being tried at The Hague – that threshold is high and the ICC's caseload is already significant – and more about what international criminal recognition signals and enables. Every major shift in environmental accountability has followed a period in which the moral and scientific case became impossible to ignore at the international level. The ICC proposal represents that inflection point for ecocide. The legislation, litigation and regulatory action that follows international criminal recognition is what boards should be preparing for. The amendment is the legal declaration that this is serious. The consequences will be felt principally through national law.
The companies that have treated their environmental management systems, governance frameworks and disclosure practices as genuine reflections of responsible stewardship are well positioned for what is coming. Those that have treated them as compliance exercises are not. The trajectory is clear and the direction of travel has not changed. The only variable is timing.
References
[1] Stop Ecocide International, 'FAQs – Ecocide and the Law: ICC Proposal and State Support'. https://www.stopecocide.earth/faqs-ecocide-the-law
[2] Stop Ecocide International, 'Ecocide Law – The Legal Process for Making Ecocide an International Crime'. https://www.stopecocide.earth/ecocide-law
[3] Stop Ecocide International, 'Ecocide Law – Universal Jurisdiction'. https://www.stopecocide.earth/ecocide-law
[4] Stop Ecocide International, 'Developing Ecocide Law – The Independent Expert Panel Definition' (June 2021). https://www.stopecocide.earth/