Earlier this month a few members from Bristol East Greenpeace were inspired by the talk given by international barrister and award winning author, Polly Higgins. There are already internationally recognised laws on the crimes against peace such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. So these laws have been established to protect people, but Polly puts foward the very strong argument for a 5th crime against peace - that of Ecocide. She defines Ecocide as 'the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severly diminished.'
Such a law would ensure that those with governance and corporate responsibility for the environment would be liable if they allowed their practices to destroy the environment. It would put a stop to destructive activities that we witness in Canada with the Tar Sands development, the illegal logging of the rainforests in South America and Asia, the poisoning of rivers and lakes in China, the pollution that the oil industry causes in Nigeria and Russia. To escape prosecution, these companies and government sanctioned activities would be given a limited amount of time to steer their projects away from damaging the environment and instead adopt practices that puts people and the planet first. I hope you will agree that our planet desperately needs this law to be introduced.
I was astounded to learn that the law of Ecocide was drawn up and was discussed by the UN back in the 1980s and almost became a reality some 14 years ago. However the initiative was buried as three nations objected to the proposal - ashamedly one of those countries was the UK! Saying that 10 countries have adopted the law of Ecoicde, namely Vietnam and most of the former Soviet countries including the Ukraine, Kasakhstan, Belarus and Georgia
The aim is to eradicate ecocide by 2020. The first stage is to get a 1 million people in Europe to sign a European Citizen's Initiative by 21st January 2014. This will allow an Ecocide Directive to be drafted and discussed at the European Parliament. It would then be hoped to persuade the United Nations to follow Europe's example and end Ecocide globally.
PLEASE SIGN THE EUROPEAN CITIZEN'S INITIATIVE. Click here to sign and find out more.
This is a law that is gloabl in remit and local in impact. it has the potential to create jobs, build resilient economies and create a legal duty of care upon governments, businesses and banks. Time is so overdue for such a law. Let's make it a reality.
If you get the chance to hear Polly Higgins speak then I thoroughly recommend you take up that opportunity. In the meantime there are several YouTube videos you can view. The video clip below briefly explains what ecocide is and encourages you to sign the petition.
Thanks to Wilf and his team for setting up the talk.
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