Ecocide Bibliography Highlight:

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

De Hemptinne and Szczupak explore whether the systematic destruction of Indigenous communities’ landscapes during peacetime - through industrial activities such as mining, deforestation, and resource extraction - could amount to an aggravated form of ecocide. While crimes against humanity and genocide may, in theory, apply, there are significant conceptual and definitional limitations when addressing the intertwined cultural, spiritual, and environmental harms Indigenous peoples suffer.

In the same vain, the proposed definition of Ecocide by the IEP does not adequately address the unique human-environment relationships that are vital for the survival, identity, and cultural preservation of Indigenous communities and their distinct environments. To reflect this, a new paragraph 3 could be added to the proposed Article 8ter of the ICC Statute, stating: ‘Ecocide is aggravated when environmental damage significantly impairs the enjoyment of the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples, as recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (13 September 2007).

Read the full article at https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-destruction-of-indigenous-communities-landscapes-an-aggravated-form-of-ecocide/ or explore more articles about ecocide at https://ecocidelaw.com/bibliography/