Article 441. Ecocide

What has happened is nothing less than ecocide.

The situation was described to the Committee as “ecocide”.

So...having a system that deliberately promotes the acceleration of consumption for the sake of so-called “economic growth” is pure ecocidal insanity.

Today, when most of the world understands the existential threat posed by climate change and ecological destruction, we in Georgia have witnessed a sickening campaign of ecocide as part of the invasion.

Article 161 of the Criminal Code, “Ecocide”, provides for a penalty in the form of imprisonment for 10 to 15 years for mass destruction of plant or animal life, poisoning of the atmosphere or terrestrial or water resources and other acts causing or capable of causing environmental disaster.

“Our focus during this year's seminar was on nuclear weapons, on the role that these ecocidal, suicidal and genocidal weapons play in a world struggling to recognize and move towards a holistic perception of security - one that includes environmental protection, protection of all actors affected by all phases of conflict, and that integrates and understands the reasons that make people pick up arms in order to disarm.

This concerns primarily crimes against the peace and security of mankind (arts. 353-360 of the Criminal Code: the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression; public calls for the initiation of a war of aggression; the development, production, accumulation, acquisition or sale of weapons of mass destruction; the use of prohibited means and methods of waging war; genocide; ecocide; mercenary activities; attacks on internationally protected persons or institutions) and a number of other crimes referred to in conventions (art. 206, “Hostage-taking”; art. 211, “Hijacking of an aircraft, sea vessel or railway train”; art. 227, “Piracy”; and other articles of the Criminal Code).

However, the Criminal Code is applied independently of the criminal law of the place in which the act was committed with regard to the following offences: (a) genocide (art. 127); (b) crimes against the security of humankind (art. 128); (c) production, stockpiling or distribution of prohibited instruments of war (art. 129); (d) ecocide (art. 131); (e) use of a weapon of mass destruction (art. 134); (f) violation of the laws and customs of war (art. 135); (g) criminal violations of the norms of international humanitarian law in time of armed conflict (art. 136); (h) inaction or issuance of a criminal order in time of armed conflict (art. 137); (i) human trafficking (art. 181); (j) other offences committed outside Belarus which are prosecutable on the basis of a binding international treaty of Belarus.

Thus the Criminal Code of Ukraine contains eight articles which in one way or another are concerned with criminal liability for activities involving the potential proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: article 258 (Terrorist act); article 261 (Attacks on facilities which contain objects posing a heightened risk to the environment); article 321 (Illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, transport, transfer and stockpiling for sales purposes or sale of toxic and potent substances); article 326 (Infringement of the rules on handling microbiological or other biological agents or toxins); article 333 (Illegal export from Ukraine of raw materials, inputs, equipment and technology for weapons manufacture, and also military and specialized technology) article 439 (Use of weapons of mass destruction); article 440 (Development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, sale and transport of weapons of mass destruction); and article 441 (Ecocide).