COP30 in Belém: DRC calls for international recognition of ecocide as a major crime
With environewsrdc
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forcefully renewed its call for the international community to recognize ecocide as a crime on par with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The appeal was made by the Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development and the New Climate Economy, Professor Marie Nyange Ndanbo, during a high-level dialogue held on the sidelines of COP30.
For the DRC, environmental justice must be elevated as a cornerstone of international law.
“We are convinced that sustainable stabilization depends on the protection of ecosystems. The recognition of ecocide which we are working to integrate into our national legal framework is an essential tool to prevent major environmental destruction,” said Minister Nyange Ndanbo.
The panel brought together prominent voices from four continents, united by a common conviction: protecting water means protecting life. Discussions highlighted how the recognition of ecocide could strengthen the defense of the world’s major river systems from the Congo River to the Ganges and the Amazon — and safeguard the communities that depend on them.
Professor Nyange Ndanbo cited eastern DRC as a tragic example of large-scale environmental destruction that has gone unpunished. She stressed that severe damage to forests, rivers or oceans is an attack on life itself.
“To gravely harm our forests, our rivers or our oceans is to gravely harm life,” she declared.
Amid escalating threats of severe and often irreversible pollution to global freshwater systems, the recognition of ecocide as an international crime represents a historic opportunity to strengthen global accountability and protect these “living arteries of the Earth.”
At COP30, the DRC’s message resonates as an urgent call to build a stronger international governance framework capable of protecting vital water resources essential not only for human survival, but also for the stability of entire ecosystems.
