Summary
On January 25, 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a Resolution calling on it’s 46 member states to recognize and codify ecocide as a crime in both national legislation and international law, and strongly recommended amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as a new crime.
The Council of Europe (PACE) is not to be confused with the Council of the EU and European Parliament, both of which are EU institutions –which together are the main decision-making body of the EU. The Council of Europe is not part of the EU institutions. It is an international organization with a broader membership that is based in Strasbourg and protects human rights, democracy and the rule of law. PACE is not a legislative body. Therefore, this resolution does not have legal force; rather, it gives impetus to the global initiative to recognize ecocide at the International Criminal Court.