COMBATING ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES IN THE CONDITIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

In the article, on the basis of the analysis of national legislation, international legal acts and professional positions of scientists, the problems of combating crime against the environment in the conditions of armed conflict are highlighted, and legislative and organizational ways of solving them are proposed. The importance of the criminalization of illegal acts of damage to the environment at the level of the European Union and its member states in the global interstate dimension is emphasized, certain shortcomings of international legislation and the revision of the relevant directive on war crimes against the environment are pointed out. Arguments are given for intensifying efforts to develop a universally accepted term "ecocide" and include it in the new directive of the European Union and the Rome Statute. It was emphasized that the introduction of appropriate changes to international legislation will allow to create a comprehensive system of measures to combat environmental crime, to ensure the unification of national legislative systems in terms of terminology, composition of crimes, as well as sanctions applied for their commission in armed conflicts. It is noted that verdicts in absentia in proceedings on war crimes, in particular, committed against the environment, can create a precedent basis for bringing the guilty to criminal responsibility for committing such criminal offenses in the course of an armed conflict as "ecocide", as well as for compensation for causing damage to objects of the environment. It is justified that international legal criminalization also includes institutional provision of bringing the guilty to justice, primarily as regards the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.