ECOCIDE IN THE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES: LEGAL NATURE AND PROSPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The article examines the issue of the feasibility of expanding the existing list of international crimes in international law by including the definition of ecocide as a separate international crime. An analysis of existing problems with the substantive content of the concept of "ecocide" (in particular, a clear definition of the qualifying criteria (signs) of this crime) is carried out, taking into account the serious threat (sometimes to their complete loss) to natural ecosystems as a whole and their components that are unable to recover independently, the risks of emergency environmental situations, which have increased by an order of magnitude in modern conditions of destructive impact on the environment due to a sharp change in environmental parameters due to a critical number of impact factors activated by Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, and the loss of biodiversity within the state, which has a large-scale negative impact on the state of the environment and the well-being
of Ukrainian society. In this context, its impact on the process of forming an effective international mechanism for holding international criminals accountable is considered to ensure the operation of the principle of the inevitability of punishment as one of the stabilizing elements of maintaining world law, ensuring ecological security and sustainable development.

The idea of the need to criminalize the crime of ecocide in international law by including it in the list of types of international crimes listed in the Rome Statute of the ICC is substantiated, since the delay in the implementation of this urgent task actually "by tacit consent normalizes (assumes)" the possibility of avoiding international responsibility for those persons who have already committed acts that by their nature can be qualified as ecocide.

The author expresses his belief in the importance of continuing research on the above-mentioned issues in the context of forming a new paradigm of international law, in which ecological security will be considered a key element of global peace and sustainable development, which will certainly contribute to ensuring the successful post-war recovery of Ukraine.