Invitation
Discussion on Environmental Harm in Armed Conflict, Accountability and International Cooperation and Presentation of the Manual for Prosecuting Environmental Crimes
Date: 24 June 2026
Time: 9:00 - 13:45
Location: IDLO Branch Office, Hofweg 9E, 2511 AA, The Hague
Marking three years since the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, this high-level event organised by the Ukrainian Embassy in The Hague will bring together Ukrainian authorities, international organisations, legal experts, investigators, scientists, civil society and practitioners working on accountability for massive environmental harm.
The session will combine two strands: a discussion anchored on the Kakhovka Dam case, and the presentation of the Manual on Prosecuting International Environmental Crimes, inspired by the investigations in Ukraine and authored by Climate Counsel and UCLA's The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe).
Together, the discussion and the Manual aim to translate hard-won experience from Ukraine into shared methodology and to advance accountability for environmental war crimes through stronger international cooperation. But the Manual's scope is wider than its origins. It addresses both war crimes and crimes against humanity: the former committed in conflict, the latter being charged in peacetime as well.
The discussion takes place against the backdrop of evolving international approaches to accountability for environmental harm in armed conflict, including the recent policy of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on addressing environmental damage through the Rome Statute.
The Manual lays out the legal architecture for prosecuting environmental destruction as an international crime, and shows how to apply this in practice.
It offers a step-by-step guide to what can be done within existing legal frameworks, while building the practical foundations any future law will also require. The Manual provides prosecutors and investigators confronting unlawful environmental destruction, in any jurisdiction and in war or peace, with practical frameworks for identifying, framing, and building cases. It includes five case studies that illustrate real-world, present-day examples of environmental crime.
The Manual will be available to download for free after the launch. It will be shared via this newsletter, on LinkedIn and on our website.