The Promise Institute Europe continues to explore the intersections of economic, social and cultural rights with the crime of ecocide.

In March 2024, we co-organized a roundtable discussion on these issues with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Special Procedures experts in Geneva. This event followed earlier calls by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Secretary-General for ecocide to be defined as a crime under international law. Future discussions will continue to explore the impact of severe environmental damage on various human rights, as addressed by numerous Special Rapporteurs who witness these effects across their mandates.

The human rights implications of ecocide cut across a range of Special Procedures mandates. Experts have addressed the impact of severe environmental damage on the rights to life, health, a healthy environment, safe drinking water and sanitation, food, an adequate standard of living, housing, property, culture, self-determination, and development. Through their ongoing work, Special Rapporteurs play an important role in addressing procedural and substantive issues of relevance to the crime of ecocide.

At the closed roundtable discussion, which was hosted by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water and attended primarily by experts in social and economic rights, participants discussed the relevance of the emerging norm to their mandates, and considered opportunities for engagement and advocacy in the context of their country visits, individual communications, thematic studies and reports.

A second roundtable is scheduled for spring 2025.