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Almost a year ago, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) began developing a Policy-Environmental-Crime.

 The ICC does not currently prosecute environmental crimes as a separate category.

But, this initiative of OTP is driven by calls from legal experts, NGOs, and affected communities to hold individuals accountable for serious environmental harm, particularly when it is linked to genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. The process includes public consultations to establish a comprehensive approach to accountability for these offenses

Environmental harm such as deforestation, pollution, resource exploitation, or climate-related displacement worsens instability, deepens humanitarian crises, and impacts vulnerable communities  most severely.

Their central argument is that certain forms of environmental harm  when tied to genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity should fall squarely within the ICC’s mandate to deliver accountability and deterrence.

The Rome Statute already offers legal hooks for environmental accountability when ecological damage is used as a method of warfare, or when it generates suffering that qualifies as part of a broader international crime. The new policy aims to clarify and systematize how prosecutors will build such cases rather than treating environmental harm only incidentally.

The goal is to create principled criteria for recognizing and prosecuting environmental harm when it intersects with core crimes under international law.

Why Environmental Harm Matters for International Justice

Environmental destruction is not a collateral inconvenience it reshapes societies. Widespread deforestation, toxic pollution, illegal resource extraction, and climate-related displacement deepen humanitarian crises and destabilize entire regions. Vulnerable and marginalized communities suffer first and most: losing land, food, health, culture, and legal protections. These harms directly undermine peace, development, and human rights, making a strong case for their treatment within the ICC’s regime.

Looking Ahead

The ICC’s development of an environmental policy is not merely procedural. It signals a historic evolution in international criminal law one that recognizes that environmental integrity and human dignity are inseparable. If implemented with ambition and rigor, this framework could mark the first sustained attempt to hold individuals criminally accountable for large-scale environmental harm under international law, reinforcing the growing global consensus that environmental law belongs at the core of justice, not at its margins.