Final Declaration of the First International Conference on Ecocide

Our conference, which aims to include ecocide as a crime in domestic and international law, bears the responsibility of being the first meeting organised at the international level on this issue in Turkey. 

In our conference where the definition of "acts committed illegally or wantonly, with the awareness that they are likely to cause severe and widespread or severe and long-term damage to the environment, constitute the crime of ecocide" created by the Stop Ecocide Foundation was discussed, the concepts in the definition were questioned from different perspectives. Within the framework of these discussions, it can be said that environmental protection should be extended from war crimes to peace time. 

The offence of ecocide does not only cover illegal acts, but also acts committed intentionally with negligence, resulting from lack of foresight or imprudence, in line with the principles of prudence and foreseeability. In this framework, the fact that the act carries a potential danger of ecological destruction is sufficient for a criminal sanction to apply, and the occurrence of actual damage is not required. The penalties for the offence of ecocide can be defined by a process to be established over time by the structures that decide that the offence has occurred and may differ from country to country.