Damage to and the destruction of the natural environment: Terraforming warfare in Gaza and the humanitarian imperative informing accountability for ecocentric crimes

Kemp, Gerhard

Abstract

This contribution considers the significant and well-recorded environmental damage in Gaza, following Israel’s full-scale military operations that started in October 2023. It is argued that, in the absence of ecocentric legal frameworks, war crimes law and international humanitarian law (IHL) more generally, provide appropriate avenues for the protection of the environment and to stop the accountability gap. In doing so, it argues that despite the lack of ecocentric crimes in the international criminal justice system, the humanitarian imperative and anthropocentric crimes (including core international crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes) could be used as the tools to hold to account those responsible for environmental destruction during hostilities. The war crimes framework in particular is analysed and a way forward is proposed. The paper argues that the humanitarian norm which informs IHL and war crimes law, informs both State and individual liability for the violation of primary rules, which includes the protection of the natural environment in times of war.

• Working Paper Type: Working Paper
• Deposit Date: Feb 7, 2025
• Pages: 1-29
• Keywords: Environmental degradation, ecocentric crimes, war crimes, international humanitarian law (IHL), the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13733403