On the picture Mr. Pablo Fajardo Mendoza.
Text and pictures by Liudmyla Palamar.
Hague Talks has already become an integral part of the public sphere of The Hague. One of a number of reasons behind such success is relevance of the organized discussions. For instance, The Hague Talks on whether ecocide should be classified as a 5th international crime against peace was undoubtedly relevant this week, when the 14th Assembly of State Parties to the International Criminal Court took place in The Hague.
Ecocide is a relatively new term that means destruction of the natural environment, especially when willfully done. There are still discussions on what type or scale an environmental crime has to be in order to be classified as ecocide. However, there is something almost all environmental activists and experts completely agree with – ecocide is a serious crime one cannot get away with. Speakers, who were invited for The Hague Talks on ecocide, definitely share this opinion and were pleased to discuss it with the general public of The Hague.
The evening talks were opened with an inspiring speech of Humberto Piaguaje, Chief of Ecuador’s Secoya indigenous tribe, who explained how deeply indigenous people are connected with jungles and how deeply they suffer, because other are exploiting the nature.
Pablo Fajardo Mendoza, Attorney and recipient of the Goldman Prize and CNN Heroes Award, and Daniela Palacios, international dispute resolution lawyer, made the audience familiar with legal aspects of the topic as well as provided a set of arguments why it is time to add ecocide to the list of crimes against peace and, thus, empower ICC to have jurisdiction over it. A final speaker’s Michael Baumgartner from Greenpeace Switzerland creative performance was followed with a Q&A session.
One can find it unreasonable that environmental crimes have become a subject of such intense discussions in legal field recently, because laws on this matter already exist and nothing has changed since they were developed. However, according to the Wednesday talks’ speakers, the shameful reality is that the existing laws work in favor of big corporations, who pay affordable fines for polluting environment, but do not stop doing it. As Michael Baumgartner stated, it is the reason why ecocide has to be classified as criminal offense to enable courts to prosecute individuals for committing crimes against environment.
So, every CEO would think twice whether to make a business decision that can cause destruction of the environment.
