Environmental Protection in Armed Conflict

Environmental Protection in Armed Conflict: From Massive Damage to Ecocide

Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1977), in Articles 35(3) and 55, recognises that the natural environment enjoys special protection during armed conflict. It prohibits methods and means of warfare that are expected to cause “widespread, long-term and severe” damage to the environment. This standard provides a legal basis to challenge the use of weapons and munitions – including white phosphorus and heavy metals – when they lead to systematic destruction of soil, water, and vegetation over many years. 4

The International Law Commission (ILC) has also adopted “Draft Principles on Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflicts,” affirming states’ duties to prevent and remediate long-term environmental contamination and to respect the “no significant harm” principle in relation to other states and communities. In practice, these principles intersect with the logic of ecocide, where massive environmental destruction becomes a direct attack on human rights to life, health, food, and water. 5

Even though the term “ecocide” is not yet expressly used in the core humanitarian treaties, the accumulation of norms – from the Geneva Conventions and the CCW to the CWC and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – creates a strong legal foundation for treating deliberate and systematic environmental destruction during conflict as a serious international crime requiring accountability.