ADVANCING ECOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: A POTENTIAL LEGAL TOOL FOR SAFEGUARDING ENDANGERED SPECIES AMIDST CLIMATE CHANGE

This article highlights the need to formalize a legal framework regulating the ecocide crime in international law, within the context of climate change that causes a biological diversity crisis in today’s world. Accordingly, this study’s main argument is to advocate for a definition to be adopted at international level, which will encompass elements of the ecocide crime. The study evaluates existing international legal instruments as the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, highlighting their limitations in adequately addressing environmental harm. Elaborating ecocide with its criminal dimension in international law has a very crucial function for the protection of the elements of biological diversity, particularly, the endangered species which are currently facing with an existential danger in the face of human-induced climate change. The necessity of an international effort to define ecocide is clear. Adoption of a new Jus Cogens rule recognizing the rights of the environment will ensure the legal protection of nature and reinforce sustainable practices on a global scale. There is no doubt that for this to happen, an ecocentric approach that centers on the right to the environment and, more broadly, the legal personality and rights of the planet must be adopted.