“We’re not heading in a good direction and I sense trouble ahead,” Philippe Sands QC, one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers, tells me when we speak over Zoom. Known for his work on the origins of genocide, Sands has long been acutely conscious of the horrors that humans can commit. But, to date, prosecutions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been limited to those acts which primarily impact other human beings – something Sands no longer believes is adequate.
Sands is now part of a push to make the systematic destruction of nature a recognised international crime known as “ecocide”. Since November, Sands has been co-chairing an expert panel charged with giving the term legal definition. If an amendment to the ICC’S founding treaty is then adopted, ecocide will sit alongside war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as a legally binding offence – one through which chief executives and heads of state can be brought to justice.
Content from our partners
