Facing the destruction of ecosystems, climate change and the mass extinction of biodiversity, it is time to criminalise those who threaten the planet and our rights.
We, parliamentarians from all over the planet, unite in an international alliance for the recognition of the crime of Ecocide.
Initiated by Marie Toussaint, a Green Member of the European Parliament, this alliance aims at constituting a network of elected representatives willing to work together towards the recognition of ecocide from regional to international level. We have hope: the Republics of Maldives and Vanuatu asked in December 2019 that ecocide would be recognized within the International Criminal Court. See hereunder for where we stand in our respective countries.
MEMBERS
Marie Toussaint
France, European Union
Marie Toussaint is a Member of the European Parliament since May 2019. She is in the institution working on the development of environmental law’s ambition and enforcement for the rights of the people and of natural commons. As a lawyer, she founded in 2015 the French climate justice NGO “Notre Affaire à Tous” which initiated “l’Affaire du Siècle”, the first ever climate litigation case against France, historically gathering more than 2 300 000 signatures of support. She is committed to fight for the recognition of ecocide crime and achieve environmental justice.
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Email marie.toussaint@europarl.europa.eu
Eufemia ‘Ka Femia’ Cullamat
Philippinos
Rep. Eufemia “Ka Femia” C. Cullamat is the first genuine grassroots representative from the Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao. She is a Lumad peasant from the Manobo tribe in Surigao del Sur, Caraga Region. She grew up in the mountains of the Andap Valley.
Despite the difficulties, Ka Femia has dedicated herself to serve her Lumad community. She has been an active leader in her community since the 1980’s. In 1987, she was a council member of the provincial Lumad organization, Kahugpungan sa mga Lumad nga Nagkahiusa sa Surigao del Sur (KALUNASS). In 2004 she became a council member of the Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU), an inter-municipal organization of Lumad in Surigao del Sur. She has also lent herself to caring for her fellow Lumad. She served as a Community Health Worker.
On September 1 2015, the bloody Lianga Massacre happened in the Lumad community of Surigao del Sur. The Paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani and the AFP shot Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Jovillo Sinzo in front of all the community members. ALCADEV Executive Director Emok Samarca was hog tied with his throat slashed. This merciless attack against her Lumad community was what pushed Ka Femia to devote herself fully to the Lumad struggle. She became a full-time organizer for a regional Lumad organization and was one of the most vocal speakers in exposing the abuses against Lumad communities.
In 2019, she was elected as a representative to the 18th Congress under Bayan Muna Partylist.
As a product of the state’s failure to deliver social services to the indigenous people, Ka Femia is one of the few representatives who hasn’t finished their formal education. However, she carries with her the lessons learned from a lifetime of struggle as a Lumad leader. Guided by her experience and the rich history of the Lumad struggle for ancestral lands and the right to self determination, Ka Femia stands proud as the genuine voice of National Minorities in Philippine Congress.
Rebecka Le Moine
Sweden
Rebecka Le Moine is a member of the green party and spokesperson for Biodiversity. She has been awarded the “environmental hero” by the WWF and the King of Sweden, for taking the initiative to celebrate the UN biodiversity day in Sweden. With a master degree in conservation biology and a background as a biology consultant, her biggest concern is to find political solutions to tackle the mass extinction of our fellow species. Therefore, she is working to change our basic values, where animals and Nature also has legal rights, and where ecocide is recognized as a criminal act.
Larissa Waters
Australia
In 2010, Larissa Waters became the first Australian Greens Senator ever elected in Queensland. She is now the Australian Greens’ co-deputy Leader, Leader in the Senate, and national spokesperson on Women, Democracy, Mining & Resources.
Before entering parliament, Senator Waters worked as a community sector environmental lawyer. In 2010 she was named Australian Young Environmental Lawyer of the Year.
She is passionate about representative democracy and public participation, accountability in government, equality for women, and protecting our environment. She works tirelessly to improve federal laws to end domestic violence, transition to renewable energy sources, and clean up politics by ending corporate donations to political parties and establishing a federal corruption watchdog.
She lives in Brisbane with her two young daughters, the younger of whom caused a bit of a stir when she became the first baby to be breastfed in Australia’s federal parliament.
Caroline Lucas
Great Britain
Caroline Lucas is the UK’s only Green party MP and represents the constituency of Brighton Pavilion on the south coast of England.
She was first elected to Parliament in 2010, and has been re-elected three times since, each time increasing her majority. Caroline has helped raise the profile of the Green Party both with her policy initiatives and multiple media appearances on national TV, radio and online. Although she remains the only Green party MP, they now have more than 300 councillors across the country.
Caroline has brought Green issues, whether on environmental and social protections or the need for a fairer electoral system, to the House of Commons and was the first MP to raise the need to declare a climate emergency. She has demonstrated that it is possible for politics to be conducted in a different way, building effective and constructive relationships with other parties to campaign on issues which unite us.
Website: Carolinelucas.com
Email caroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk
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Rodrigo Agostinho
Brasil
Roberto Agostinho is a deputee at the Federal Assembly (Câmara Federal) of Bresil since 2019. He was elected with more than 100 000 votes to represent the state of Sao Paulo. He is a member of the PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party). He was the mayor of Bauru (+400 000 inhabitants) between january 2009 and December 2016. Lawyer and ambiantalist, he is the president of the Commission on the Environment at the Federal Assembly, and president of the Ambiantalist Parliamentary Front (2020).
Ines Sabanes
Spain
Inés Sabanés has been a Member of the Spanish Parliament since January 2020 and co-spokesperson of the Spanish Green Party, Equo, since february 2020. From 2016 to 2020, she was local councillor of the city of Madrid, in charge of sustainable mobility where she put in place Madrid Central, a low emissions zone in the centre of Madrid. She has occupied different political responsibilities in Spanish institutions, and she has always defended general interest, human rights and green politics as a way to get a fairer and more sustainable world.
Janet Rice
Australia
Senator Janet Rice is an Australian Greens Senator for Victoria, and is the party spokesperson for science, research and innovation, forests, foreign affairs, multiculturalism, transport and infrastructure, and LGBTIQ+ issues. She is the Federal Greens' Party Room Chair and Deputy Whip.
Janet is a climate scientist by training. She has been a community and environmental activist and campaigner all her adult life, and is proud of her role as one of the leaders of the campaign that led to the creation of National Parks in East Gippsland in Victoria that protect some of the most intact and biodiverse forests in Australia, and of being one of the founders of the Australian Greens Victoria.
Prior to becoming a senator in 2014 Janet was a councillor and mayor of Maribyrnong Council in Melbourne’s west, and Chair of the Melbourne Metropolitan Transport forum.
Throughout her time in the Senate, Janet has been a passionate advocate for nature, for action on our climate crisis and for peace, democracy and human rights and economic and social justice across the globe.
Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin
United States
Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin is a city councilmember in his hometown of Port Angeles, Washington State, United States, a small city on the edge of the Salish Sea and the Olympic Mountains, in the historic territory of the Klallam People (nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕).
He is also a lawyer, focusing on issues of the relative power of governments, corporations, and the people, specificlly state interferance with local democracy.
He has represented the Little Mahoning Watershed, Crystal Spring Ecosystem, and Lake Erie Ecosystem in court, and published on rights of nature in Representing Ecosystems in Court: An Introduction for Practitioners, 31 Tulane Envtl. L.J. 279 (2018); Nature’s Rights through Lawmaking in the United States, in La Follette & Maser (Eds.), Sustainability and the Rights of Nature in Practise (CRC Press 2019); and The Rights of Nature Movement in the United States, in Anthony R. Zelle et al. (Eds.), Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law—A Guide for Practitioners (Aspen Coursebook, Wolters Kluwer 2020).
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Email lswawrin@cityofpa.us
Caroline Roose
France, European Union
Caroline Roose was elected Member of the European Parliament in 2019. She sits in the Greens-EFA group.
She was born in Belgium but grew up and lived in the Alpes-Maritimes, in the french mediterranean region. She has been active in civil society movements and NGOs prior to serving political office.
She is a member of the fisheries committee of the European Parliament where she defends the preservation of marine ecosystems and small-scale fishers against industrial fishing and its lobbies. As she comes from a sailors family, she is committed to protect oceans.
She also works on EU regional policy in the regional development committee of the European Parliament.
Last but not least, she is a member of the development committee where she defends the recognition of ecocide. Caroline Roose works on the European Union's development aid policy, the implementation of the Agenda 2030 on sustainable development, but also and above all on the impact of agricultural, fisheries and trade policies on local communities and ecosystems in developing countries.
Paul Manly
Canada
Paul Manly is the Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Ladysmith. He was first elected on May 6th, 2019, becoming the second Green MP to ever sit in Canada's House of Commons.
Prior to entering federal politics Paul Manly was a small business owner with extensive experience in film and television. He produced documentary films on environmental issues, community watershed protection, international trade deals, food security, First Nations issues and cultural revitalization, and health care. His work raised public awareness and influenced government policy. Paul also coordinated employment skills training programs for youth at risk and people with diverse abilities.
Paul is a strong advocate for a healthy environment, social justice and equality. He has been calling for action on climate change and the biodiversity crash, a Guaranteed Livable Income for all Canadians, for universal pharmacare and dental care and for national standards for long term care.
Eleonora Evi
Italy
Eleonora Evi is a Member of the European Parliament, at her second mandate and sitting in the Greens/EFA group. At the Parliament, she is member of the Committees on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and on Petitions (PETI) and substitute member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). She is also active on animal rights, especially as member of the Committee of inquiry on Animal Transport (ANIT), Vice-President of the Animal Welfare Intergroup and Co-Chair of the Cage-Free Farming Working Group.
Andrés Ingi Jónsson
Iceland
Andrés Ingi Jónsson has been a member of Alþingi, the Parliament of Iceland, since 2016. He currently represents the Pirate Party in the Reykjavík North constituency.
He seats in the Environment and Communications Committee and in the Icelandic delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Susanne Zimmer
Denmark
Susanne Zimmer is a member of the Danish parliament for the party Independent Greens. She is the spokesperson for nature, environment, agriculture, transport, health and covers a number of other political areas. The struggle for biodiversity and a healthy liveable planet with a much more thriving and flourishing nature is one of the things that Susanne is very passionate about in her political work.
Before being elected as MP, she had run her own gallery and has been the head master of a few schools in the Northern part of Denmark after having worked as a school teacher for a number of years.
Samuel Cogolati
Belgium
Samuel Cogolati is a Member of Parliament since May 2019. He is a member of the Green Party (Ecolo) and vice-chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In July 2020, he introduced a bill in the House of Representatives in Belgium to criminalize ecocide within its borders and to support island nations Vanuatu and the Maldives in their quest to amend the ICC’s Rome Statute to include the crime of ecocide. Before being elected, Samuel was a PhD researcher writing a thesis at the University of Leuven on the role of international law to protect the commons.
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Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland, European Union
Sirpa Pietikäinen is a Finnish member of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament since 2008. She is a former Finnish Minister of Environment (1991-1995). Her career at the Finnish parliament is extensive, ranging from the year 1983 to 2003.
Within her work, she seeks to combine her two specialities, that of environment and economics. At the European Parliament, she is a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and the Women’s Right and Gender Equality Committee as well as a substitute member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee.
A graduate from the Helsinki School of Economics, she holds MSc in Business, and teaches university courses on negotiations theory and practices. She is active in several organisations, her positions of trust including Chairmanship of the Globe EU.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
South-East Asia
APHR is a regional network of current and former parliamentarians who use their unique positions to advance human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia. We seek to help create a region where people can express themselves without fear, live free from all forms of discrimination and violence, and where development takes place with human rights at the forefront.
Our members use their mandate to advocate for human rights inside and outside of parliaments, regionally and globally. They work closely with civil society, conduct fact-finding missions, and publish recommendations and opinions on the most important issues affecting the region.
APHR was born out of the recognition that human rights issues in Southeast Asia are interconnected, and from the desire of progressive legislators to work together across borders to promote and protect human rights.
The APHR network of parliamentarians has decided to join the Ecocide Alliance in 2021.
Alejandro Aguilera
Venezuela
Alejandro José Aguilera Rodriguez, 39 years old, is Venezuelan. His profession is a civil engineer and lawyer. He graduated from the University of the East of Anzoategui State, Venezuela.
He is currently the National Secretary General of the Ecological Movements of Venezuela, Deputy of the National Assembly, Principal Deputy before the Mercosur parliament, Member of the permanent Sub-commission of international treaties and conventions and President of the special sub-commission for the Implementation and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
He is also the delegate of the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas to the Global Greens.
Jennifer Whitmore
Republic of Ireland
Jennifer Whitmore TD is the Social Democrats party spokesperson on Climate and Biodiversity and is a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action.
Before entering politics, Deputy Whitmore trained and worked extensively as an marine ecologist, working with the Marine Institute as a fisheries scientist. She spent 10 years in Australia where she worked as a senior policy analyst in the NSW Government developing environmental law, water management and energy policy. Her work also involved collaboration with indigenous communities in relation to cultural rights and resource management.
In her role as Member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action, Deputy Whitmore has worked to advocate for stronger climate action targets in legislation, with a focus on biodiversity protections. Her first piece of legislation focused on placing Basking Sharks on the protective species list in Ireland, in recognition of their endangered status and as a species of cultural and global importance.
Deputy Whitmore is passionate about the environment and the need for a cultural and societal shift in how we view and protect our planet.
Lammert Van Raan
Netherlands
Since March 2017 Lammert van Raan (MSc, MA, 1962) is a member of the Party for the Animals (PvdD) faction in Dutch Parliament. His dossiers include economic affairs & climate policy; finance (including taxation), foreign affairs (including Europe), education, arts & culture and social affairs & employment Together with his team he is currently producing an initiative proposal on Ecocide, initiative legislation on a new climate law and lastly taxation on animal slaughter. Next to that he is spearheading the debate on reduction on aviation and the use of biomass. Prior to Dutch Parliament Lammert represented the PvdD in city and regional political bodies. His professional career encompassed telecom/internet industry as well as teaching in secondary education. See here for full bio.
Raphaël Mahaim
Switzerland
Raphaël Mahaim is a member of the Parliemant of the canton of Vaud (Switzerland) since 2007. He is commited to environmental justice and human rights ever since. As a an attorney at law in Lausanne, he is particularly active in climate litigation (affaire des “aînées pour la protection du climat” and affaire des “activistes climatiques contre Credit Suisse”) and also environmental cases at a local level (nature, biodiversity, landscape protection, etc.). He also teaches planning law and environmental law at the University of Lausanne and the Haute-Ecole de Suisse occidentale. He is passionnate about fighting for a better future and for the democratic rights of those who stand for more respect for nature.
Elizabeth May
Canada
Elizabeth May served as Leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2006 – 2019, in 2011 becoming the Green Party of Canada’s first elected Member of Parliament representing Saanich-Gulf Islands. She will continue as Member of Parliament and will run again, now serving as the Parliamentary Leader of the Green Caucus.
In 2005, Elizabeth May was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her decades of leadership in the Canadian environmental movement. She graduated from Dalhousie Law School and was admitted to the Bar in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She practiced law in Ottawa with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre prior to becoming Senior Policy Advisor to the federal minister of the Environment (1986-1988). For seventeen years Elizabeth served as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada (1989-2006).
A proud mother and grandmother, she lives in Sidney, British Columbia, with her husband John Kidder. Elizabeth is the author of eight books, including her most recent book, Who We Are: Reflections on my life and on Canada.
Natalie Bennett
United Kingdom
Natalie Bennett (or Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle) is a Green Party member of the UK House of Lords. She was leader of the Green Party of England and Wales 2012-2106 and the editor of the Guardian Weekly from 2007-12.
She tabled amendments to the UK Environment Bill backing international and national offences, and traces her involvement with the issue back to a 2008 seminar at the British Library.
With her first degree in Agricultural Science, she can get very geeky about soils, although tries to only do that with genuinely interested audiences.
Rosa D’Amato
Italy
Rosa D'Amato is a Member of the European Parliament since 2014 and she sits in the Greens/EFA Group. In the European Parliament, she is a Member of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) and the Committee on Fisheries (PECH), and a substitute Member of the Committee on Petitions (PETI) and the Committee on Budgets (BUDG). She is also part of the Delegation for relations with Palestine and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Environmental and social sustainability, territorial cohesion and transparency constitute the core values of her political work, which focuses on ensuring the adoption and implementation of ambitious environmental legislation, fighting for safe jobs and protecting citizen's health.
Through her political work and activism, Rosa is also fighting tirelessly to put an end to the deadly pollution caused in her hometown, Taranto, by the former Ilva steel plant, the largest steelworks in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.
Yuliia Ovchynnykova
Ukraine
I am a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chair of the Sub-Committee on forest resources, fauna and flora, natural landscapes and objects of the nature reserve fund of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Natural Resources since 2019.
Also, I am the Member of the Ukrainian delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and participate in the Network of Contact Parliamentarians for a healthy environment on the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.
Before I was elected MP I was an Acting Dean of the Faculty of Biology of Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University. It is the first displaced university in Ukraine. I have a PhD in biological sciences, in particular, my doctoral thesis is dedicated to the environmental protection and ecological policies in Ukraine.
We have to raise the issue of ecocide not only in the national parliaments, but we must look for innovative solutions for stopping and preventing ecocide and advocate for their implementation in the national legislation.
Leah Gazan
Canada
Leah Gazan is the Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre. She is an educator by trade and has spent her life working for human rights on the local, national, and international stage. Gazan is the NDP Critic for Children, Families, and Social Development and recently introduced Bill C-232 The Climate Emergency Action Act and submitted Motion 46 to convert the Canada Emergency Response Benefit into a permanent Guaranteed Livable Basic Income. She was recently featured on Maclean's 2021 Power List. MP Gazan is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota Nation, located in Saskatchewan, Treaty 4 Territory.
Saskia Bricmont
Belgium, European Union
Saskia Bricmont, born on March 16, 1985, is a Belgian politician, member of the Ecolo party. Originally from Ath, she has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. This mother of two boys defends a project of open, altruistic and tolerant society, and intends to put all her commitment at the service of a renewed European project, by being the relay of all those who commit themselves daily for the climate, social justice, democracy and human rights.
For her, it is indeed at the European level that some major issues are at stake, such as climate change, the challenge of migration, human rights, the rise of inequalities, the refoundation of our social model, human rights, women and LGBTQI+ rights. She is a member of the "Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)" and "International Trade (INTA)" committees.
Josep Puig I Box
Catalonia
Josep Puig i Boix (Vic, Catalunya, 1947) is a consultant on energy and sustainability. He has a PhD as an engineer in Energy Technology (graduated in 1972, doctorate in 1982 at the UPC) Undergraduate in biomedical engineering (1973) and environmental engineering (1979).
He is the co-founder of Ecotècnia S.C.C.L. (1981), a pioneer wind engineering coop, and Ecoserveis (1992), an association working on European renewable energy projects on education.
He was elected member of Barcelona City Council in May 1995 where he served as Sustainable City Councillor until 1999, leading the process to adopt the Barcelona Local Agenda21 and to adopt the Barcelona Solar Ordinance, that later became National Law.
Due to the political repression against the pro-independence movement, he became member of the Catalan Parliament at the end of May 2019. JxCat’s Speaker of the Parliamentary Commission of Climate Emergency. Professor, UAB (1979-2012) Member of the Board (as vice-president) of EUROSOLAR - European Association for Renewable Energy. Chairman of the Catalan and Spanish section. President of Earth Day Catalonia. Leader of Living from the air of Sky’s project (the first citizen’s owned wind generator in Catalonia, Spain and in the Southern Europe)
Monica Lennon
Scotland
Monica Lennon is a Scottish Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland region.
She is the Scottish Labour’s spokesperson on Net Zero, Energy and Transport. Monica Lennon delivered the world-leading Period Products Act, working with trade unions and with campaigners and activists in communities all over Scotland and beyond.
Alexandra Attalides
Cyprus
Alexandra Attalides is a Member of the House of Representatives, serving as Representative of Nicosia constituency under the banner of the Cyprus Greens-Citizens’ Cooperation, since June 2021. She currently serves as Member of the House Standing Committees on Internal Affairs, Human Rights and Institutions. She is also, a Member of the delegation of the House to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), to the Interparliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and to the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) at the Working Group on "Climate change and the environment”. Furthermore, she is a member of many civil society organisations in the fields of human rights and environmental protection. Previously, she served as Spokesperson of the Office of the European Parliament in Cyprus for twelve years (2008-2020). She was Director of Communication of the University of Nicosia and she has worked for the Cyprus Tourist Organisation (Now Deputy Ministry for Tourism). She has Master of Business Administration with a specialization in European Management MBA (Ηοns) from the Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles and a Degree in Communication and Public Relations. She is also an accredited Advanced Member of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK (MCIM UK), Member of the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA) and Member of the Society of Technical Analysts UK (STA UK). She speaks English, French and Greek.