CEOs can now be tried under international law at The Hague for environmental crimes
CEOs whose businesses commit environmental crimes can now be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The ICC is looking to clamp down on land grabbing, a practise
that has seen multinationals take over large areas of foreign land to exploit its natural resources without benefiting the local inhabitants.
The move could reshape how business is done in developing countries says Global Witness, an NGO that has been urging the ICC to investigate the issue.
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“Chasing communities off their land and trashing the environment has become an accepted way of doing business in many resource-rich yet cash-poor countries,” said Gillian Caldwell, Executive Director at Global Witness.
CEOs whose businesses are found to be complicit in razing tropical rainforests, poisoning water supplies or seizing land will face prosecution.
“The ICC announcement sends a powerful message that the terrible impacts of land grabbing and environmental destruction have been acknowledged at the highest level of criminal justice,” Ms Caldwell added.
World news in pictures
World news in pictures
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1/30 19 September 2016
Demonstrators gather in front of a burning car during an opposition rally in Kinshasa. Police fired tear gas at scores of opposition supporters rallying in Kinshasa to demand that DR Congo's long-serving President Joseph Kabila step down this year. Kabila, who has ruled DR Congo since 2001, is banned under the constitution from running again -- but he has given no sign of intending to give up his job in December
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2/30 18 September 2016
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (R) and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (C) stand in front of a mangled dumpster while touring the site of an explosion that occurred the night before in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. An explosion in a construction dumpster that injured 29 people is being labeled an "intentional act". A second device, a pressure cooker, was found four blocks away that an early investigation found was likely also a bomb
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3/30 18 September 2016
Participants hold a rainbow flag during an annual LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) pride parade in Belgrade, Serbia
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4/30 18 September 2016
Paramilitary policemen take part in a drill in Baise, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
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5/30 18 September 2016
Firemen work at the scene of an explosion in a block of flats in the Premia de Mar area of Barcelona, northeastern Spain. At least one person died and another 15 were injured, two of them seriously, in an explosion due to reasons still unknown inside the second flat of a seven floor building. The incident forced the evacuation of the building
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6/30 18 September 2016
People stand near a boat which according to officials, capsized on the Chao Phraya river while carrying 150 Thai Muslims, in the ancient tourist city of Ayutthaya, Thailand
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7/30 18 September 2016
Danielle Hughes performs on a plane piloted by Emilliano Del Buono during the Athens Flying Week aviation event over the Tanagra air base in northern Athens, Greece
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8/30 17 September 2016
The full moon is seen behind the hill of the three crosses in Cali, Colombia
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9/30 17 September 2016
Fire fighters respond to an alleged explosion on West 23rd Street in New York. An explosion in New York's upscale and bustling Chelsea neighborhood injured at least 29 people, none of them in a life-threatening condition, the fire department said
AFP/Getty Images
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10/30 16 September 2016
Hindu devotees gather to perform prayers on the banks of the river Ganga on the occasion of the first day of 'Pitru Paksha', a period of sixteen days when the devotees pay homage to their ancestors, in Allahabad, India
REUTERS
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11/30 16 September 2016
Advocates with Oxfam America have placed hundreds of life jackets on the ground along the New York City waterfront to draw attention to the refugee crisis, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Many of the life jackets used for the action were used by adult and child refugees and collected on beaches in Greece. The undertaking was a prelude to next week's United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants
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12/30 16 September 2016
A protester holds a placard reading 'Xi Jinping stop killing in Tibet' during a rally involving members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities in Europe in front of the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva
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13/30 15 September 2016
Residents clean up a flooded street in Xiamen, in China's eastern Fujian province after Typhoon Meranti made landfall. Parts of Taiwan came to a standstill as super typhoon Meranti brought the strongest winds in 21 years, while China issued a red alert for waves as the storm bore down on the mainland
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14/30 15 September 2016
French riot police, covered with red paint, detain a man during a demonstration against the controversial labour reforms of the French government in Paris. Opponents of France's controversial labour reforms took to the streets for the 14th time in six months in a last-ditch bid to quash the measures that lost the Socialist government crucial support on the left. Scores of flights in and out of France were cancelled as air traffic controllers went on strike to try to force the government to repeal the changes that became law in July
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15/30 15 September 2016
Model plane builder Otto Dieffenbach III makes his remote control plane resembling U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump release fake money as it flies over the beach in Carlsbad, California
REUTERS
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16/30 15 September 2016
A devotee carrying an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, jumps into the Sabarmati river to immerse the idol on the last day of the ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Ahmedabad, India
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17/30 15 September 2016
A koala soaked by floodwaters sits atop a fence post to escape the deluge in the town of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia
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18/30 14 September 2016
Members of the fire dragon dance team holding up the 'dragon' as it winds through the narrow streets and houses during the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance in Hong Kong The century-long tradition involves waving incense-lit, straw-filled dragons to bring blessings to onlookers under the full moon during the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. / AFP PHOTO / ISAAC LAWRENCEISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP/Getty Images
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19/30 14 September 2016
A city worker fumigates the area to control the spread of mosquitoes at a temple in Bangkok, Thailand
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20/30 14 September 2016
Relatives hold up portraits of their loved-ones as they attend a rally ahead of a visit by the German and French foreign ministers, asking foreign authorities to help in the search for Ukrainian servicemen, believed to have been captured by separatists during the military conflict in eastern Ukraine, outside the German embassy, in Kiev, Ukraine
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21/30 14 September 2016
A hot air balloon carrying tourists is picturedduring the annual wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara game reserve
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22/30 13 September 2016
A Syrian boy jumps as he plays in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern edges of the capital Damascus, on the second day of Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday
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23/30 13 September 2016
People gather to watch fireworks exploding from a replica of the Eiffel Tower after the opening of the Sands new mega resort The Parisian in Macau. Billionaire casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson predicted a revival for beleaguered Macau as he launched his new Paris-themed mega resort, with the gambling enclave betting its fortunes on mass market tourists
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24/30 13 September 2016
A large crocodile attacks a wildebeest during the migration in the Masai Mara game reserve. The daring wildebeest returned after the first attempt by the crocodile and was attacked again but walked away unharmed
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25/30 13 September 2016
Pakistani Muslim children look out of a window during the Eid al-Adha prayers in a mosque in Karachi
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26/30 12 September 2016
A dance group performs on the cliffs in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, China
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27/30 12 September 2016
A trained young eagle attempts to catch a drone during a demonstration organized by the Dutch police as part of a program to train birds of prey to catch drones flying over sensitive or restricted areas, at the Dutch Police Academy in Ossendrecht. Dutch police are adopting a centuries-old pursuit to resolve the modern-day problem of increasing numbers of drones in the skies, becoming the world's first force to employ eagles as winged warriors
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28/30 12 September 2016
Egyptians try to catch balloons distributed for free after Eid Al-Adha prayers outside al-Seddik mosque in Cairo, Egypt
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29/30 12 September 2016
An Indian police officer detains a youth as they walk past burning trucks that belong to the neighboring Tamil Nadu state set ablaze by angry mobs in Bangalore, Karnataka state, India. India's top court ordered the southern state of Karnataka to release water from a disputed river to neighboring Tamil Nadu after violence erupted in both states over water sharing
AP
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30/30 11 September 2016
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held Salihin neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo. Air strikes have killed dozens in rebel-held parts of Syria as the opposition considers whether to join a US-Russia truce deal due to take effect on 12 September
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Global Witness has called for the EU and national governments to now follow suit as not all countries are under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
China, India, Russia and Indonesia did not sign or ratify the Rome Statute which established the ICC and the US and Israel have said they have no legal obligation, despite signing.
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