The European Parliament, on Wednesday 19 May, easily adopted (518 votes in favour, 97 against and 77 abstentions) an own-initiative report by Soraya Rodríguez Ramos (Renew Europe, Spain) calling on the European Union to strongly support environmental rights defenders and their legal representatives, and to condemn all attacks against these activists.
Noting that environmental defenders face abuse, intimidation, violence and murder in many remote rural areas, MEPs call on the EU to make the fight against impunity for environmental crimes a top foreign policy priority.
They also call on the EU and Member States to act for the recognition of ecocide as an international crime under the Rome Statute, paving the way for new negotiations within the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The EU should also do more to support people forced off their land by the effects of climate change (floods, drought, land destruction, etc.), say the MEPs.
“We call for the fundamental right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment to be guaranteed through urgent and concrete actions and commitments, both at international and EU level, by including it as a right within the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights”, said Ms Rodríguez Ramos after the vote.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3v6KuG1 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)