Steve: The Golden Age of Gaia does not subscribe to the allegations being made against Pope Francis.
(We have taken the executive decision of no longer making our links “hot” to address the malware problem.)
BREAKING: Pope calls for international crime of Ecocide
Earth Protectors, email, n.d.
https://tinyurl.com/utwhau2
Barely a week ago on Friday 15th November in the Vatican, at a meeting of the International Association of Penal Law, one of the oldest-established legal associations in the world, Pope Francis proposed that ‘sins against ecology’ be added to the Catholic teachings – and then went a step further, saying “ecocide” should be a fifth category of crimes against peace at the international level.
The Pope described acts that “can be considered as ‘ecocide’: the massive contamination of air, land and water resources, the large-scale destruction of flora and fauna, and any action capable of producing an ecological disaster or destroying an ecosystem”.
“By ‘ecocide’ we should understand the loss, damage or destruction of ecosystems of a given territory, so that its’ enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or may be severely affected. This is a fifth category of crimes against peace, which should be recognized as such by the international community.”
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is – in essence, it’s the very definition submitted by our co-founder Polly Higgins to the UN Law Commission in 2010.
We’re not sure how to express quite how exciting this is.
Whatever the Catholic Church may need to address within its own ranks, Pope Francis himself (evidenced in his choice of papal name following Francis of Assisi) has a strong public record of deep concern for nature. The message his support for ecocide law will send to a huge section of the global population should not be underestimated.
As Greenpeace observes on the subject in their latest Unearthed newsletter: “as the international legal and banking systems slowly toy with the idea of making environmental harm some kind of crime/metric of failure the Pope has decided to get ahead of the game.”
Raising the Profile of Ecocide
at the International Criminal Court
We’re excited about our presence at the ICC’s annual Assembly coming up in less than a fortnight – targeted invitations have been going out to diplomats, politicians, NGOs and activists for our series of events focusing on ecocide crime. The world may focus on the COP talks in Madrid but the real potential for change will be at The Hague…
This year is going to be all about opening up the conversation and building alliances. You can view our programme here.
