International law recognizes the importance of environmental protection during armed conflict. Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions was the first treaty to formally prohibit warfare methods that cause widespread, long-term, and severe environmental damage. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) further criminalizes damage to the natural environment as a war crime, though its high threshold has so far prevented its use. The existing initiatives to define “ecocide” aim, among other things, to broaden accountability beyond armed conflict and include corporations.

In this post, part of the Emerging Voices series, Iryna Rekrut, Legal Fellow at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, proposes an additional potential avenue that could also be used to improve accountability for environmental damage under the Rome Statute. She argues that a more expansive interpretation of existing provisions – particularly refining the definitions of “widespread,” “long-term,” and “severe” damage – could meet the evidentiary burden and make prosecution more viable under current international law.