Ecocide and Environmental Crime: International Developments and Italy’s Transposition of EU Directive 2024/1203

As environmental crime continues to escalate globally, causing severe and often irreversible harm to ecosystems, biodiversity and human health, while undermining governance and the rule of law, the European Union has adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1203 on the protection of the environment through criminal law, significantly strengthening the legal framework for the prevention and prosecution of environmental offences

With EU Member States required to transpose the Directive by mid-2026, UNICRI, Stop Ecocide International, John Cabot University, and SIOI are organizing the conference "Ecocide and Environmental Crime: International Developments and Italy's Transposition of EU Directive 2024/1203", to be held on Friday, 30 January 2026, from 10:00 to 13:00, at the Aula Magna Regina, John Cabot University, Rome.

The conference will provide a timely forum to examine the implications of the Directive for the Italian legal system and to engage with the evolving international debate on the recognition of ecocide-like conduct as one of the most serious forms of environmental crime.

Strengthening criminal law responses to environmental harm

Directive (EU) 2024/1203 replaces previous EU legislation on environmental crime and establishes minimum rules to ensure stronger, more coherent criminal law protection of the environment across Member States. Key elements include:

• An expanded catalogue of environmental offences, including acts and omissions, digital conduct, and activities carried out under unlawfully obtained permits;

• Criminal liability for harmful emissions and pollution causing, or risking, serious environmental or human harm;

• Aggravated offences for widespread, long-lasting or irreversible damage to ecosystems or protected habitats;

• Enhanced liability of legal persons, including high-level fines, accessory penalties, and obligations to restore environmental damage;

• Confiscation of illicit profits, with the possibility of using seized assets for environmental restoration;

• Stronger investigative powers, cross-border cooperation, and protection for whistleblowers and civil society actors.

Where intentional offences result in catastrophic environmental damage, the Directive provides for aggravated criminal offences encompassing conduct comparable to what is increasingly referred to as ecocide in international legal discussions.

High-level speakers and multidisciplinary perspectives

The conference will bring together leading voices from international organizations, EU institutions, academia, law enforcement and civil society, including:

• Jojo Mehta, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Stop Ecocide International

• Corrado Clini, former Minister of the Environment, SIOI Representative

• Prof. Fausto Pocar, Emeritus Professor of International Law; former Judge of the ICTY and the ICJ

• Prof. Emanuela Fronza, Associate Professor of Criminal Law, University of Bologna

• Elisabetta Reyneri, Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission

• Sergio Nazzaro, Environmental Crime Research Centre; Parliamentary Anti-Mafia and Eco-Mafia Commissions

• Marco Letizi, former Colonel, Guardia di Finanza; International Consultant

• Domenico Aiello, Head of Legal Protection for Nature, WWF Italy

Through a multidisciplinary dialogue, the event will explore how criminal law can more effectively respond to environmental harm, support the green transition, and strengthen the rule of law in the face of increasingly complex and transnational environmental crime.

Join us at the Conference, register here