In a prior post on this blog, I examined whether the existing framework of international crimes—namely, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—could be mobilized to address the systemic exploitation and killing of animals. I concluded that the relevance of these crimes to such conducts is, at best, incidental. Primarily designed to protect human beings, international crimes offer legal safeguards to animals only indirectly, namely when the harm inflicted also affects human welfare. More fundamentally, such crimes were crafted to target exceptional human crises: armed conflict (war crimes), widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations (crimes against humanity), and acts of extermination against specific human groups (genocide). They were never intended to confront the “normalized” structural violence routinely inflicted upon animals through practices like industrial farming, scientific experimentation, and habitat destruction. Yet, such forms of violence produce immense suffering and the mass death of animals on a global scale.
International Environmental Law
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The First Ecocide Treaty?
Culminating in Vanuatu’s long-anticipated proposal to amend Article 5 of the Rome Statute with a new international crime last September, the burgeoning ecocide conversation has recently reached new heights. Various jurisdictions, including Belgium and the European Union, have passed ecocide-inspired environmental criminal laws in past months. A freshly launched Ecocide Law Advisory,…
Africa’s Turn: The African Court’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change
On 2 May 2025, the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR, the Court) received a request for an advisory opinion concerning the obligations of states in the context of climate change. This development was anticipated: as early as 2023, there were indications such a request was in preparation (at 54:30) and, that same year, the…
From Extraterritorial Obligations to Aggravated Responsibility: How Regional Human Rights Courts Could Shape the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change
In March 2023, the United Nations General Assembly requested an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ responsibilities under international law to protect the climate system for current and future generations. The Court’s Opinion is expected to clarify the content and scope of human rights obligations and their implications for state…
Critical Minerals, Environmental Harm and the Unspoken Rights of Nature: The Kafue River Spill in Zambia
The global demand for critical minerals has intensified as part of the clean energy transition in line with goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. The environmental costs of extracting and processing these minerals, however, are increasingly borne by mineral-rich but ecologically and socially vulnerable regions. The 2024 Guiding Principles on Critical Energy…
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