Ecocide: The Missing Convention

Through centuries of continuous exploitation and damage to the environment, humans have degraded the resources for their own survival. Climate change and the extinction of several species are the outcomes of the long-term destruction of the environment. Still, big corporations and many states are ignoring this fact and damaging the environment for their own profit. For decades, various legal experts, environmentalists, and philanthropists have been working on criminalising "ecocide" and adding it as the fifth international crime to the Rome Statute. For the better implementation of this right, we need a law that criminalises that crime against the environment at a global level. Many countries have included crimes against the environment in their national penal codes. But we need a convention that harmonises the laws in the area of criminalising ecocide at a global level. This research paper is divided into four parts. The first part focuses on the evolution and conceptual understanding of the term "ecocide." The second part will deal with the legislative framework at the domestic and international stage. The third part will include the implication of ecocide in various states and case studies related to it. The last part will conclude with an analysis of the situation based on the criminalisation of ecocide and why there is a need for the convention on ecocide.