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Article Source: https://www.stopecocide.earth/who-we-are-
Accessed from the world wide web at 11:00 hrs 14.12.21.
‘Ecocide’ is a word to describe what is happening to our planet; the mass damage and destruction of the natural living world. It literally means “killing one’s home”. And right now, in most of the world, no-one is held responsible.
It’s time to change the rules. It’s time to protect our home.
We are working, together with a growing global network of lawyers, diplomats, and across all sectors of civil society, towards making ecocide an international crime.
“Ecocide” means 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 by those acts.
Who are we
Stop Ecocide International (SEI) was co-founded in 2017 by pioneering barrister Polly Higgins (1968-2019) and current Executive Director Jojo Mehta.
SEI is the driving force behind, and central communications hub for, the growing global movement to make ecocide an international crime. Our core work is activating and developing global cross-sector support for this. We collaborate with diplomats, politicians, lawyers, corporate leaders, NGOs, indigenous and faith groups, influencers, academic experts, grassroots campaigns and individuals to this end.
Positioned at the meeting point of legal developments, political traction and public narrative, we are uniquely placed to support and amplify the global conversation.
Our core international team is located in many parts of the world and managed from the UK by Stop Ecocide International Ltd.
Our charitable entity the Stop Ecocide Foundation was created in November 2019 in the Netherlands to be the fundraising vehicle for the campaign, and was the commissioning body for the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide. It has ANBi status
What We Do
Our core work is activating and developing global cross-sector support for an international crime of ecocide.
With over 10 years of collective experience and history in this work, we collaborate with diplomats, politicians, lawyers, corporate leaders, NGOs, indigenous and faith groups, influencers, academic experts, grassroots campaigns, individuals and a wide network of allied groups to this end.
The route we advocate is that of amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the only global mechanism which directly accesses the existing criminal justice systems of its 123 member states.
Member states which ratify the crime must include it in their own domestic law, creating a uniform rule across jurisdictions. In this way Earth’s most precious ecosystems can be protected and allowed to recover.
Progress
In November 2020, the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide was convened by our charitable arm, the Stop Ecocide Foundation on the request of interested parliamentarians from governing parties in Sweden. The panel’s groundbreaking work was announced in June 2021.
The full ‘Commentary and Core Text’ can be found here.
Interest in criminalising ecocide is already a matter of public record at parliamentary and/or government level in the following countries via motions, resolutions, parliamentary questions, petitions, white papers or full proposals of law:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Bolivia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Luxembourg, the Maldives, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Vanuatu as well as at the European Parliament, the Nordic Council and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Stop Ecocide International is the driving force behind, and central communications hub for, the growing global movement to make ecocide an international crime. There are now teams and associate groups in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Cyprus, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Italy, Americas, Zambia, Mali/Tunisia, Belgium and over 20,000 subscribed members (Earth Protectors)