ICC Expands Remit to Environmental Crimes: Is This What the People of Cambodia Have Been Waiting for?

Oct 28, 2016 | Hannah Gerber
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Cambodia’s land reforms in 2001 have led to over 10 years of violent and coercive land grabs, damaging the livelihoods of nearly 10,000 Cambodian citizens. These reforms initially legalized the act of spontaneous land-grabbing when such dispossession is justified by public interest of the state. Consequently, state-led evictions cause tremendous instability as people become at constant risk of losing their homes. Moreover, citizens are being violently coerced by armed state officials into homelessness, seeing as the state fails to provide adequate living compensation post-eviction; there are currently 350,000 Cambodians who are homeless and subsist on severe levels of poverty in direct consequence of land-grabbing.

As of last month the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) decided to expand its remit to prosecute governments for committing environmental crimes. This remit includes land grabs, since they are known to cause immense environmental degradation. The ICC also claimed to keep their focus on Cambodia with the expansion of this remit, as these land grabs are not only damaging the environment but also the livelihoods of people in Cambodia.