AN IMPORTANT PROGRESS IN THE CLASSIFICATION OF ECOCIDE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS PROJECTION AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

Abstract

Environmental catastrophes throughout the planet, drought and fires in some parts, while in others, cyclones, hurricanes, great floods that cause the disappearance of vast tracts of land, challenge humanity in pursuit of a profound change. This is how an international ecological movement arose to hold both States and private individuals responsible for certain activities that cause destruction, severe deterioration or serious and irreversible damage to nature, both in times of peace and war, under the penal type of ecocide. The legal basis is due to a firm conviction of the international community to sanction with the maximum legal rigor the violation of obligations that protect the world's ecological heritage. Thus, several projects were presented to incorporate the crime of ecocide in the Rome Statute of 1998 as a fifth crime against peace. Faced with the difficulties worldwide to achieve its classification, the European Union proposed the revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on environmental protection through criminal law and the incorporation of the crime of ecocide. In this context, the purpose of this article is to analyze Resolution 2477/2023 and Recommendation 2246/2023 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the environmental impact of armed conflicts and the support of the European Parliament for the inclusion of "ecocide" in the European Directive 2008/99/EC on environmental protection through criminal law under review.