Jonathan Liljeblad was born in Myanmar as a member of the Pa’Oh Indiginous peoples and grew up in Sweden and the United States. His analysis Intersections of Ecocide, Indigenous Struggle, & Pro-Democracy Conflict: Implications of Post-Coup Myanmar for Ecocide in International Criminal Law considers Myanmar's current conflict as a potential case for future ecocide prosecution.

🎡 Join us in London or online!

📆 31 October 2025

👉 Full Programme & Registration links here: https://www.promiseeurope.law.ucla.edu/conference-ecocide-human-rights-and-environmental-justice

Dr. Lwabukuna is a distinguished Tanzanian legal scholar and lawyer with two decades of experience spanning academia, advocacy, and policy research across Africa and the UK.

Through her work, she actively promotes socio-economic justice and human rights, teaching, influencing policy and engaging with civil society across Africa and the wider Commonwealth.

Humans Matter Too: “Ecocentric” Does not Mean “Misanthropic”

Meet Darryl Robinson, Professor at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, member of Ecocide Law Advisory and part of the expert panel on the definition of ecocide.

At the conference on Ecocide, Human Rights and Environmental Justice, Darryl will unpack the widespread misuse of terms “anthropocentric” and “ecocentric” that has spread throughout the current ecocide literature, leading numerous scholars to believe that any consideration of human interests is “anthropocentric”. 

🎡 Join us in London or online!

📆 31 October 2025

👉 Register here: https://sas.sym-online.com/registrationforms/ecocide-conference-oct2025

On the last day of their visit to Geneva, the UCLA Law in The Hague students were able to sit in as states debated the reports of the working groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, before catching a briefing on efforts to protect children in armed conflict from Aurelie Lamaziere of Save the Children International.  

After lunch, they headed over to Palais Wilson to meet with UC alum Sun Kim, Legal Advisor at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to discuss Commissions of Inquiry (CoI).

On their second day in Geneva, the UCLA Law in The Hague students visited the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Museum, attended sessions at the UN Human Rights Council and met with practitioners at the forefront of international humanitarian and human rights law, deepening their understanding of both the challenges and the impact of these global efforts. 

Dr Lovleen Bhullar is Assistant Professor in Environmental Law at the University of Cambridge, as a speaker at our upcoming conference in London on 31 October.

Dr Bullar, together with Gita Parihar, a senior legal consultant specialising in environmental and human rights law, has co-authored the paper “Reviving India’s River Goddesses: Ecocide, the Right to a Healthy Environment and Rights of Nature”.

Their work explores the synergies between the proposed international crime of Ecocide, the right to a healthy environment, and the rights of nature.

The UCLA Law in The Hague students are spending this week in Geneva!

On Day 1, the students were able to watch the UN Human Rights Council consider reports on unilateral sanctions, mercenaries and the right to water – and grab a photo with long-time Promise Institute collaborator Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation! They also visited non-profit International Bridges to Justice, and finished the day with a traditional Swiss cheese fondue.

We were delighted to join the community reception and forum for University of California alumni, students, and friends in the Netherlands at the 25th anniversary celebration of the study abroad exchange of UC and Utrecht University!

Daniel Adjin Odonkor is a lawyer and researcher with the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town, where his work explores the intersection of criminal law, human rights, and social justice.

Daniel proposes an innovative solution through a "hybrid" definition of ecocide, that balances environmental protection with human rights.

His approach addresses developing nations' concerns about restricting their growth while maintaining robust environmental protections.

The conference can be attended in person and online.

Register Here 📝

In The First Ecocide Treaty? (EJIL:Talk!, June 2025), Daniel Bertram traces the shifting legal definitions of ecocide from the 1970s to today, advocating for a definition that is both flexible and forward-looking. His analysis emphasises the importance of including reckless acts and omissions, while cautioning against rigid cost-benefit limitations.

Nature Matters, edited by Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf, gathers African, Asian, and Caribbean diaspora voices to reimagine environmentalism and ecopoetics. Woolf, our 2020 Poet in Residence at the UCLA Promise Institute, explored the intersections of poetry, law, and capitalism’s impacts on marginalised communities.

In A Barrister for the Earth, pioneering barrister Monica Feria-Tinta takes us behind the scenes of landmark legal cases defending rivers, forests, and endangered species. Feria-Tinta, a distinguished speaker at our 2024 launch conference, shared insights into the groundbreaking ITLOS Advisory Opinion on climate change.

The landmark opinion handed down by the world’s highest court on Wednesday sets a new framework for legal efforts to address the climate emergency.

We were delighted to see the neglected climate impacts of armed conflict addressed by US Judge Cleveland in her Declaration.

Our ED Kate Mackintosh was in the courtroom of the International Court of Justice yesterday to hear the delivery of the historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change. Among other significant findings, the Court held that States are under a binding legal obligation to protect the climate system; that there is a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment which is essential for the enjoyment of other human rights, and that the principle of non-refoulement applies to people who have been forced to leave their country due to climate change.  

🚨 Late last week the IACtHR issued a landmark Advisory Opinion on the climate emergency and human rights. The Opinion marks a major step forward in articulating the ways the climate emergency is related to human rights harms. Crucially, the Opinion also* establishes obligations and standards which States must meet in response to the climate emergency — obligations set according to the standards of international human rights law. 👏👏👏

The shootings at the GHF food distributions in Gaza, at which over 500 people have already been killed and thousands injured, are a violation of core humanitarian principles and can be considered a potential war crime, says our Executive Director Kate Mackintosh.
In an interview with Al Jazeera this morning she warns that GHF staff may be complicit in these war crimes and could potentially be prosecuted by many states around the world.

Immigration is a broad and complex topic. With his book Borders and Belonging, Professor Hiroshi Motomura offers a framework that helps deepen the conversation and foster meaningful dialogue, identifying the overlapping but distinct claims of humanity and belonging.

Our Executive Director, Kate Mackintosh joined a distinguished gathering in the margins of the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice to discuss the importance of creating a crime of Ecocide.

Hosted by the states of Vanuatu and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the event included ministers, government officials and MPs from Ghana, Guatemala and Tahiti, united in their commitment to end the destruction of our shared environment.

Ecocide in Peru: Repsol and the Colonial Regime of Permission, Ignasi Bernat Molina, Environmental Politics (May 2025).

This paper examines the 2022 Repsol oil spill in Peru as a case study, demonstrating how the disaster resulted from long-term decisions by both Spanish and Peruvian states. It argues that ecocide must be understood within a colonial matrix that enriches fossil capital while creating conditions for ecological destruction.

Thanks to the stellar work of our research assistants Ava Schuster and John Dover, our annotated bibliography on international criminal law and environmental protection is fully updated! We’re excited to share the most powerful reads we have come across. Today’s highlight:

The Destruction of Indigenous Communities’ Landscapes: An Aggravated Form of Ecocide? Jérôme de Hemptinne & Helena Szczupak, EJIL:Talk! (May 2025)

This piece explores whether peacetime industrial destruction of Indigenous landscapes constitutes an aggravated form of ecocide.

Our Executive Director Kate Mackintosh was honoured to assist Monica Lennon as a member of her expert advisory committee. She spoke to BBC Radio Scotland to explain the bill.