{"id":73224,"date":"2026-05-07T18:44:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=73224"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:44:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:14:55","slug":"ecocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/07-05-2026\/ecocide","title":{"rendered":"Ecocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The term \u201cecocide\u201d has gained renewed attention amid allegations of large-scale environmental destruction during recent conflicts, including the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Ecocide?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ecocide refers to <strong>severe, widespread, or long-term destruction<\/strong> of the environment caused by human actions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The term was coined in <strong>1970 by Arthur W. Galston<\/strong> during debates surrounding the environmental devastation caused by <strong>Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In 1972, Olof Palme <\/strong>used the term at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vietnam <\/strong>became the first country to <strong>criminalise ecocide domestically in 1990.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Countries such as <strong>Russia, Ukraine, France, Belgium, and Chile<\/strong> have incorporated similar provisions into their legal systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Existing International Laws on Environmental Damage<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Geneva Conventions: <\/strong>The Geneva Conventions prohibit <strong>methods of warfare <\/strong>causing widespread, long-term, and severe environmental damage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Environmental Modification <\/strong>Convention bans deliberate environmental manipulation for hostile purposes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The International Criminal Court\u2019s Rome Statute<\/strong> recognises four core crimes: <strong>Genocide, Crimes against humanity, War crimes, and Crime of aggression.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Intentionally launching attacks causing widespread, long-term and severe <strong>environmental damage during war can qualify as a war crime. <\/strong>However existing international laws are largely <strong>anthropocentric<\/strong>, meaning they focus on harm caused to humans.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hence environmentalists are <strong>demanding <\/strong>that ecocide be recognised as the <strong>fifth international crime<\/strong> under the Rome Statute.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent International Developments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>IUCN Recognition:<\/strong> In 2025, the <strong>International Union for Conservation of Nature <\/strong>formally recognised ecocide as a crime concept, encouraging states to incorporate it into domestic and international law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Council of Europe Convention (2025):<\/strong> The Council of Europe adopted the Convention on the Protection of the <strong>Environment through Criminal Law in 2025.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/ecocide-definition-international-law-icc-rome-statute-10664347\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The term \u201cecocide\u201d has gained renewed attention amid allegations of large-scale environmental destruction during recent conflicts, including the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What is Ecocide? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Ecocide refers to severe, widespread, or long-term destruction of the environment caused by human actions. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The term was coined in 1970 by Arthur W. Galston during debates surrounding the environmental devastation caused by Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/07-05-2026\/ecocide \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73226,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73224\/revisions\/73226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}