The Fifth Crime Against Peace
Posted: October 1, 2011 Filed under: My Writing Leave a comment »My latest article for Deutsche Welle on Polly Higgins’ proposal to make ecocide the fifth crime against peace is now live on their environment/development page.
Under the Rome Statute, which first entered into force in 2002, signatory countries are obligated to prosecute four hard-to-define crimes against peace.
These include genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes.
Higgins wants ecocide added to the list, as a base for international laws against the destruction of the earth.
I’ll keep my opinions on the proposal to myself — after all, a journalist’s supposed to remain objective — but I will say this: much of the media coverage she’s gotten thus far doesn’t do Higgins any justice. It focuses a lot on the idealism this proposal reflects and not enough on the hard facts of it (how this proposal would actually fit into existing international law), which Higgins knows extremely well. Only wish I’d been able to include more of my Q&A with her in this piece.
