WCC comments on the policy of the International Criminal Court of Environment

The comment follows a WCC submission on March 16, 2024 on an earlier WCC request to the ICC''S In December 2023, the legal reform calls on the legal reform of tackling the current impunity of the Climate Disinformation.

After the WCC''S December 2023 Inquiry, in February 2024 the ICC announced the plans for the development of an environmental crime guideline and invited entries. The WCC commentary in December 2023 recommends that two types of criminal acts are addressed as environmental offenses within the framework of the current Rome Act: Climate Disinformation and Financing of a new extraction and exploitation of the fossil fuel.

The WCC has focused on ecological sustainability and the need for measures to combat climate change and its effects for more than five decades.

In his recent com.''S recognition of the role of the ICC when coping with this matter under international criminal law.

“We welcome the fact that humanity''S urgently necessary to protect the environment is clearly recognized in the draft guidelines, and the prosecutor is clearly recognized''s Explicit engagement for ensuring that this responsibility reflects in his entire office''S Investigations and Cases, ”said Peter Evidence, Director of the WCC Commission of the Churches in international matters. “In the obvious absence of political will to protect life on earth from the worst effects of the accelerating climate crisis, all possible instruments of accountability under international law must be committed. “

Also prove that the draft guidelines are welcomed''S explained the goal of dealing with companies or other private actors, among other things, to inform them about legal risks related to their activities.

“However, the current draft of the guideline does not directly go to the – in our opinion, criminally criminal acts of individual executives of the fossil fuels who intentionally advertise ''Greenwashing'' and disinformation regarding your industry''S role as the main driver of climate change and its catastrophic consequences, ”he said. “We believe that the ICC Prosecutor can help create opportunities for the new case law to take individual managers for accounting that endanger our global future. “

The most promising path to law enforcement as part of the current Rome statute against humanity.

“We do not minimize the challenges associated with the implementation of such an investigation, not least with regard to the determination of the intention that the managers concerned knowingly disinformation campaigns with the intention of causing damage, and with regard to the cause the linking of specific company measures to convey climate effects with certain company measures, although progress in attribution science can reduce this special obstacle, ”says in the WCC comment.

In its conclusion, the WCC comment recognizes that the persecution of fossil fuels due to climate disinformation according to the current Rome statute gives a potential legal basis.

“With the increasing threat of climate change, there is increasing pressure to use international criminal law in order to be responsible for those who are the most responsible for the destruction of the environment. Successful law enforcement would probably require both innovative legal arguments and potential changes to the Rome Act. “

Through its comments and programs, the WCC emphasized the physical and mental suffering that is imposed on the children of the world who grow up with perspective.

WCC commentary on the ICC office of the public prosecutor borrowed guidelines for environmental crimes

WCC welcomes the international law enforcement court guidelines to determine the accountability obligation for environmental crimes (WCC press release, March 26, 2024)

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