Between Profits and People: A Critical Legal and Criminological Analysis of De Facto Ecocide in Jamaica’s Bauxite Sector

The second article from our forthcoming Special Issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on ecocide, human rights and environmental justice that we are highlighting this week is Between Profits and People: A Critical Legal and Criminological Analysis of De Facto Ecocide in Jamaica’s Bauxite Sector by Dr. Tameka Samuels-Jones. 

The article examines how Jamaica, as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), faces disproportionate environmental harm from resource extraction by multinational corporations, compounded by climate-related disasters such as the devastating Category 5 Hurricane Melissa in 2025. Against the backdrop of the absence of ecocide as a codified international crime and Jamaica not being a State Party to the ICC, Dr. Samuels-Jones explores how systematic environmental destruction, conceptualised as de facto ecocide, can be legally addressed. 

Dr. Samuels-Jones is an Associate Professor at York University and Director of CERLAC. Her research focuses on environmental crime and (in)justice in Afro-Indigenous communities in the Caribbean. 

Those who attended our conference on ecocide, human rights and environmental justice in London last year, will also remember her inspiring presentation where she dialled in from Jamaica to speak about the bauxite industry.  Her work is a real-world, present-day case study of the lived reality for the people and nature of a small island state. 

Read the article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642987.2026.2646576