This week, Wayne Jordash KC, President of Global Rights Compliance, spoke at a seminar in the Swedish Parliament, focusing on the issue of ecocide and international accountability for severe environmental harm.
Wayne Jordash KC provided a Ukrainian perspective, addressing why the criminalisation of ecocide at the international level is of importance to Ukraine, and what it means in practice for justice, security, and the protection of future generations.
In his speech, Wayne Jordash KC described the different forms of environmental harm done in Ukraine, including the devastating consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, as well as six other dams attacked and destroyed during the full-scale invasion.
He underlined that the protection of the natural environment under IHL is far from sufficient and remains fundamentally anthropocentric. Environmental damage often becomes prosecutable only when it also affects human health or survival. The domestic crime of ecocide under Ukrainian law remains insufficient to fully address the scale and nature of environmental harm we are witnessing in Ukraine. It provides a credible foundation for the continued development of an internationally accepted definition of ecocide.
“What do all these developments tell us? It shows that states already recognise the need for stronger legal tools to address large-scale environmental harm. Ecocide is not a new idea – it is a concept that has long been present, but never fully realised at the international level,” concluded Wayne Jordash KC.
GRC operates within the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA). Environmental Mobile Justice Team provides support to the Specialised Ecological Prosecution Office, advising on the most significant incidents of environmental damage committed in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.
Recently, a Ukrainian court issued the first-ever verdict for a war crime against the natural reserve fund. Environmental MJT provided support to the prosecution in this case.
Read more here.