LEGAL ADAPTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES IN LIGHT OF THE STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Abstract

There are many forms of environmental crimes, ranging from a clear violation of the natural environment, or an assault on the built environment, the cultural environment, or other things. Thus, they are closely linked to international crimes. If one browses the statute of the International Criminal Court and enumerates the crimes within the substantive jurisdiction of the court, he will find that it is competent to examine environmental crimes. Sometimes on the grounds that they are war crimes, and other times on the grounds that they are genocide, or crimes against humanity, and finally the court considered these crimes as a crime of aggression Hence, the question arises about the legal definition of environmental crimes, or in other words, under which of the crimes stipulated in Article Five of the Statute of the International Criminal Court do environmental crimes occur? In a more precise and more specific sense, are environmental crimes considered crimes of genocide, war crimes, or Crimes against humanity, or a crime of aggression?. Then we will follow the descriptive and analytical research approach by analyzing the opinions of jurisprudence and judicial rulings in the statute of the International Criminal Court. The International Criminal Court resolved the controversy surrounding the legal adaptation of international environmental crimes and the extent of its jurisdiction to consider them, through the announcement it issued in September 2016, in which it expanded the scope of its jurisdiction to include crimes that affect the environment and constitute its destruction, by announcing that it would begin to classify crimes that lead to The destruction of the environment, misuse of land, and the illegal expropriation of land ownership from their owners are considered crimes against humanity, which means that international environmental crimes have become part of the category of crimes against humanity that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to consider, which allows violators of environmental crimes to be punished before it. The crime of polluting the environment falls within the context of grave violations specified in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two Additional Protocols of 1977, as well as international conventions on human rights, and threatens international peace and security due to the failure of national judicial authorities to take the necessary measures to prosecute those accused of committing it.