Camden has become the first council in the UK to endorse a global effort to make ecocide an international crime on the same level as genocide after an impassioned speech by a leading lawyer.
Philippe Sands KC, professor of the public understanding of law at UCL, last night (September 18) asked Camden Council asking them to support the idea of making environmental breaches an international crime.
Prof Sands is one of a group of lawyers brought together by the Stop Ecocide Foundation, which argues ecocide should be added to the crimes considered by the International Criminal Court.
It has already won the backing of UN Secretary General and the European Parliament and would be the first new crime added to the international law since 1945.
Prof Sands told councillors that "for the first time ever" his three children had sent him a WhatsApp message saying "Dad, at last you're doing something useful".
He said: "In the last 40 or 50 years we've come to understand the vital importance of the protection of the environment and many people for many years have supported development of a new international crime that would focus on the protection of the enviroment. It's called ecocide."
The professor said three years ago he co-chaired an international panel to find a definition for enviromental crimes that were akin to "genocide".
He defined “ecocide” as the “unlawful or wanton acts committed with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
He said the council's move would "send a signal to councils around the world: to Mexico, to Columbia, to Bangladesh, Cameroon."
"It's unimaginable that Camden would be responsible for genocide as for ecocide," he added.
"The motion before you is really to push international consciousness. Act global think local, think local act global."
Cllr Anna Wright (Lab, Highgate) proposed that the council recognise the foundation's definition of ecocide and call for the crime to be introduced into international law.
She said: “Small steps can lead to big social change and I am proud that, through this motion, we in Camden can play our part and lead the way."
She was seconded by Cllr Nina de Ayala Parker (Lab, South Hampstead) who said it was "time to change the law, time to protect our homes".
"We can no longer be complacent," she added.
Cllr Matthew Kirk (LibDem, Belsize) said it was "a hugely important step" in international law.
Kilburn councillor Lloyd Hatton said water companies releasing sewage into UK rivers and oceans had "upset my residents", adding: "We've seen large private water companies play a frankly disgusting role in poisoning our coastline and our river ways with toxic sewage spills. They have often operated in an illegal ways."
He said he was not sure if these were severe enough to fall under the definition of ecocide but they highlight the problem that often local or national government is either unable or unwilling to hold big corporations to account.
He added: "It's really welcome we're pushing for legal mechanisms to hold corporations to account for when they commit huge acts of enviromental degradation."
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