War, the environment – and the case for ecocide as a crime

Daily Maverick · 🇿🇦 public South Africa · Apr 13, 2026 · 1061 words · By Don Pinnock

Legal Accountability International Law and Ecocide Environmental Warfare

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What to know about Legal Accountability

Read part one Environmental lawyer Llewellyn Botha has a long history of fighting for more than just human issues.

Claims checked 7

Techniques found 3

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center86%

Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Read part one Environmental lawyer Llewellyn Botha has a long history of fighting for more than just human issues.

Why it matters

What deeply concerns him right now is that, increasingly, environmental destruction is being used as a weapon of war, devastating ecosystems.

Common ground

According to him, such actions should be prosecuted as crimes undermining local and global sustainability.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Appeal to Fear, Exaggeration / Hyperbole: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Legal Accountability story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Current international law under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court focuses on four core crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression?
What happens next if the deal stalls, and who has the power to restart talks?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-04-13-how-war-weaponises-environmen…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 3 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

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Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Appeal to Fear 70% confidence

Building support by instilling anxiety or panic in the audience.

Why it matters: Recognizing appeal to fear helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Exaggeration / Hyperbole 60% confidence

Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

Why it matters: Recognizing exaggeration / hyperbole helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 7 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4

verified Verified By Reference 1

info Single Source 1

verified Verified 1

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Claim 1: “Current international law under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court focuses on four core crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and official descriptions of the Rome Statute explicitly list the four core crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute

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web search NEUTRAL — Crimes against humanity. 1. For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any c…
https://www.coe.int/t/dlapil/cahdi/Source/ICC/Rome+Statute+E…

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web search NEUTRAL — The Rome Statute of 1998 establishes four core crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression, yet it provides no comprehensive protection against large-scale environment…
https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/abs/2026/24…

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Claim 2: “It was also proposed in the Nuremberg trials against Nazi Germany, but the court ran out of time to discuss it.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence discusses the Nuremberg trials and the Rome Statute separately. While one source mentions the timing of the Nuremberg trials in relation to current ecocide drafts, none of the provided sources explicitly state that ecocide was proposed at Nuremberg but dismissed due to time constraints.

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web search NEUTRAL — Controversial at the time for their retroactive criminalization of aggression, the trials' innovation of holding individuals responsible for violations of international law is considered "the true beg…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials

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web search NEUTRAL — During the formulation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in the 1990s, it was proposed that ecocide should be included as a crime. However, this proposal was not successful.
https://esrag.org/blog/2025/03/24/ecocide-as-an-internationa…

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web search NEUTRAL — Now 75 years after the beginning of the Nuremberg trials, the timing of the draft is momentous. During these trials, the terms “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” were first voiced to define the …
https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/proposed-…

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Claim 3: “The Rome Statute can be amended only by agreement among its 125 States Parties.”

VERIFIED

Sources confirm that amendments to the Rome Statute are the authority of the member states (125) and specifically require a two-thirds majority vote.

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web search NEUTRAL — Parties and signatories of the Statute. State party.By agreement, there was no official record of each delegation's vote regarding the adoption of the Rome Statute. Therefore, there is some dispute ov…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute

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web search NEUTRAL — ICC officials have responded that amendments to the Rome Statute fall solely under the authority of the 125 member states and require a two-thirds vote.
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/34802

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web search NEUTRAL — Amendments to the Rome Statute require agreement from at least two-thirds of member parties (currently 83 countries). That’s not a simple or quick process. It’s taken years just to get to this point —…
https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/recognising-the…

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Claim 4: “In 2024, the island of Vanuatu... proposed to amend Article 5 of the Rome Statute to include ecocide.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that Vanuatu, often alongside Fiji and Samoa, has proposed an amendment to the Rome Statute to include ecocide as a crime.

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web search NEUTRAL — Proposed Amendments to the Rome Statute.The Panel’s proposals appear to form the basis of Vanuatu’s recent proposed amendment to the Rome Statute, and ecocide legislation recently introduced in nation…
https://www.quinnemanuel.com/media/tdjhobjz/client-alert-eco…

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web search NEUTRAL — The ecocide amendment proposal can be read as the preliminary culmination of a long saga engulfing social activists, academic experts, national legislators and international policy makers alike. After…
https://www.ejiltalk.org/should-ecocide-be-an-international-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want international criminal court to class environmental destruction as crime alongside genocide.The Pacific island of Vanuatu, along with Fiji and Samoa, has proposed formal r…
https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/09/pacific-…

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Claim 5: “The proposal to include [ecocide] was initially raised during the drafting of the Statute in the 1990s, but was not adopted.”

CORROBORATED

Two independent sources confirm that ecocide was proposed during the drafting of the Rome Statute in the 1990s but was not adopted; one specifically mentions the ILC removing environmental crimes in 1996.

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web search NEUTRAL — Ecocide is the destruction of the environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all human populations that are dependent on natural resources for maintaining ecosystems and ensuring their ability to suppor…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide

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web search NEUTRAL — In 1990, Vietnam was the first country to codify ecocide in its domestic laws.However, in 1996 the ILC removed environmental crimes from the Draft Code and reduced it to only the four crimes included …
https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-ecocide-definition-and-ex…

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Claim 6: “In Ukraine, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam by Russia flooded farmland, displaced wildlife and polluted the Dnipro River.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (Wikipedia and news reports) confirm the breach of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6, 2023, and the resulting humanitarian and environmental disaster, including flooding of the Dnipro river region.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Kakhovka Dam was breached in the early hours of 6 June 2023, causing extensive flooding along the lower Dnieper river, also called the Dnipro, in Kherson Oblast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Kakhovka_Da…

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web search NEUTRAL — The dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant across the Dnipro River, occupied by Russia, was destroyed in the early morning hours of June 6, sparking a humanitarian and environmental disaster in…
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-russia-destro…

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web search NEUTRAL — The Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was breached in the early hours of 6 June 2023 (Credit: Getty Images). The Kherson oblast, where Kakhovka is located, is not alone among Ukraine's environmental wartime cas…
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240223-ukraines-quest-t…

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Claim 7: “massive destruction of the Amazon rainforest under Brazil’s previous president, Jair Bolsonaro.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (DW, InfoAmazonia, and Medium) report that deforestation in the Amazon increased dramatically and 'spiraled out of control' during Jair Bolsonaro's presidency.

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web search NEUTRAL — With Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro hoping to win another term, DW looks at how the Amazon rainforest fared during the four years he was at the helm.
https://www.dw.com/en/how-has-the-amazon-rainforest-changed-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Deforestation in the Amazon has spiraled out of control during Jair Bolsonaro's as president. InfoAmazonia and PlenaMata have illustrated the destruction using satellite imagery.
https://infoamazonia.org/en/2022/10/28/four-years-of-bolsona…

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web search NEUTRAL — Since the election of Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation in Brazil increased dramatically, threatening the Amazon, a rainforest the size of Western Europe. But it’s not a new phenomenon in Brazil.
https://julia-galan.medium.com/tracing-twenty-years-of-defor…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.