CiR2P Option 29 | Pursue criminal prosecution (domestic and international)

DISCUSSION:

Actively seeking to arrest, try, convict, and punish an individual threatening or perpetrating mass-harm on a population is best pursued, with or without international assistance, through the target state’s own criminal justice system, but if this is unachievable (which could be the case for a number of reasons including the unwillingness of target to cooperate), then the three main international options are special tribunals, the International Criminal Court, and other national courts willing to exercise “universal jurisdiction”.

Domestic courts around the world, especially in Western jurisdictions, are attracting a significant increase in the number of cases that seek to punish those individuals, companies and government that are failing in their responsibility to provide a clean and habitable natural environment, which includes the need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions.

The UNEP identifies over 1,200 Environmental Courts and Tribunals (ECTs) now operating worldwide in 44 countries at the national or state/provincial level. The UNEP explain that the ‘enforcement of the environmental rule of law’ through specialised ECTs, and other legal services, is now widely viewed is a critical component to delivering the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Similarly, there is a renewed push for the Rome Statue to include the fifth crime of ecocide.

Western governments should support the development of legal forums that protect the natural environment, biodiversity and the climate – all of which are essential to long-term survival of the human population.